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ii 


The  Mistakes  We  Make 


A  Practical  Manual  of  Corrections 

IN 

HISTORY,  LANGUAGE,  AND  FACT,  FOR  READERS 
AND  WRITERS 

COMPILED    AND    EDITED 


NATHAN    HASKELL   DOLE 


e^ 


NEW  YORK :  46  East  14TH  Street 

THOMAS    Y.    CROWELL   &  COxMPANY 

BOSTON;  100  Purchase  Street 


Copyright,  1S9S 
By  Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Company 


\d^<<J^, 


EDITOE'S    NOTE. 


Solomon  says,  "  Faithful  are  the  wounds  of  a 
friend."  This  manual  tries  to  take  the  place  of  a 
friend,  good-natured  and  yet  critical.  The  cap- 
tious, carping  criticism  that  finds  fault  in  a  self- 
ish, egotistical,  pharisaical,  and  condescending 
spirit  does  little  good.  Nor  does  it  advantage  a 
man  to  have  his  faults  pointed  out  in  the  presence 
of  others.  This  little  book  is  the  counsellor  for 
the  closet.  We  all  make  mistakes  of  every  kind. 
The  old  pessimistic  philoso2)hy  says  the  greatest 
mistake  is  living.  But  since  we  are  here  in  this 
world  it  is  our  duty  to  improve  ourselves,  and 
when  our  faults  are  brought  to  our  notice,  to 
amend  them.  There  is  not  one  man,  woman,  or 
child  in  this  wide  country  that  does  not  occasionally 
perpetrate  some  of  the  blunders  in  fact,  gram- 
mar, style,  here  held  up  to  comment.  Undoubtedly 
hundreds  more  might  have  been  added  to  advan- 
tage. But  the  editor's  scoop-net  was  not  large 
enough,  and  it  is  to  be  doubted  if  a  single  book 
would  hold  them  all.  They  have  been  gathered 
from  all  sources :  the  basis  of  the  book  is  a  little 


11  EDITOR  S    NOTE. 

English  treatise  bearing  the  same  title  and  edited 
by  C.  E.  Clarke. 

But  this  material  has  been  largely  transposed 
and  rewritten.  "  Notes  and  Queries,"  that  omnium 
gatherum  of  facts  and  fancies,  has  been  ransacked, 
and  many  other  periodicals  and  books  —  notably 
Wilhelm  Edel  von  Janko's  "  Fabeln  und  Geschichte" 
—  have  been  put  under  contribution. 

There  is  nothing  original  about  the  book  or  its 
contents.  Such  volumes  have  been  made  before. 
There  is  a  French  work  in  fifteen  volumes,  con- 
taining a  vast  quantity  of  historical  mistakes  recti- 
fied at  great  length.  In  the  eleventh  century  the 
Isarned  'Ali  ibn  Muhammad  ibn  'Othmar,  called 
Al  Hariri,  or  the  Silken,  wrote  a  book  entitled 
"  The  Pearl,"  or  '«  The  Pearl  of  the  Diver,"  in 
which  he  pointed  out  a  multitude  of  errors  com- 
monly made  by  the  educated  people  of  his  day. 
Very  likely  among  the  lost  works  of  Solomon  there 
was  one  of  the  same  kind.  ProjDhets  have  arisen 
from  time  to  time  throughout  the  ages. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  no  errors  will  be  found  in 
a  book  which  aims  to  correct  errors.  Yet  many 
may  cry,  "  Physician,  heal  thyself."  The  editor 
can  only  say  that  he  has  endeavored  to  stick  to 
accuracy,  but  if  others  discover  slips  that  he  lias 
made  he  will  be  glad  to  have  them  pointed  out. 
Nathan  Haskell  Dole. 

Boston,  Aus.  25, 1898. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     Things  called  by  Wrong  Names          .  1 

II.     Mistakes  we  makb  about  Places          .  li 

III.  Mistakes  we  make  about  Plants          .  27 

IV.  Mistakes  we  make  about  Animals       .  34 
V.     Birds  and  Insects 44 

VI.     Common  Mistakes  of  Many  Kinds        .  59 
VII.     Words,     Phrases,    and     Things     that 

are  misunderstood      ....  84 
VIII.     Mistakes     we     make     in     Connection 

WITH  Ancient    History        ...  90 
IX.     The  Mistakes  we   make   in   Religious 

History 100 

X.     Mistakes  in  English  History       .         .  113 
XI.     Curious    Blunders    in    General    His- 
tory      .......  149 

XII.     Blunders    made    by    Famous    Authors 

AND  Others 1G4 

XIII.  Misquotations     and    other     Literary 

Stumbling-blocks         ....  181 

XIV.  Mistaken  Derivations   ....  204 
XV.     Mistakes  in  Speaking  and  Writing     .  226 

XVI.     Terms  Misapplied 240 

Index 271 


THE   MISTAKES   WE   MAKE, 


CHAPTER  I. 

THINGS   CALLED    BY   WRONG   NAMES. 

Tradition,  carelessness,  and  ignorance  are  re- 
sponsible for  many  instances  of  wrong  names 
applied  to  well-known  objects.  The  conservatism 
that  contents  itself  with  the  "  well  enough  "  permits 
the  error  to  be  perpetuated,  even  though  advance 
in  knowledge  may  have  shown  the  fallacy. 

Bunker  Hill  Monument.  —  Thus  we  still 
celebrate  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  the  monu- 
ment that  dominates  Charlestown  is  called  Bunker 
Hill  monument.  The  battle  took  place  on  Breed^s 
Hill. 

Cleopatra's  Needle. —  The  so-called  "Cleo- 
patra^s  Needle  "  was  not  originally  set  up  by  Cleo- 
patra, or  in  her  honor.  The  Needle,  which  is  now 
on  the  Thames  embankment  in  London,  was  first 
erected  by  Thothmes,  B.C.  1600,  in  front  of  the 
temple  of  the  Sun-god  at  On  or  Heliopolis.  When 
Rameses  H.,  B.C.  1333,  ruled  the  Nile  Valley,  he 
added  his  name  to  his  predecessor's.    Cleopatra  had 


I  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

the  monolith  taken  with  others  from  its  original 
position  and  reerected  in  Alexandria,  in  order  to 
adorn  her  palace  at  Laodicea. 

Pompey's  Pillar.  —  "Pompey's  Pillar"  has 
no  historical  connection  with  that  personage.  Ac- 
cording to  the  inscription  it  was  erected  by  Publius, 
Prefect  of  Egypt,  A.D.  926,  in  honor  of  the  Emperor 
Diocletian.  Professor  Mahafiy  claims  that  it  Avas 
erected  two  centuries  before  Christ  by  one  of  the 
Ptolemies,  and  that,  from  being  a  four-sided 
obelisk,  it  was  made  round  by  order  of  the  Em- 
peror, and  topped  with  a  capital  on  which  was 
placed  his  statue. 

Job's  Stone.  —  The  belief  in  the  existence 
of  the  "  Stone  of  Job"  must  be  given  up.  Near 
the  village  of  Saijdeh,  situated  on  the  road  leading 
from  Damascus  to  Mizerebi,  in  a  district  which,  ac- 
cording to  tradition,  was  the  birthplace  of  Job,  is  a 
hill  known  as  the  "  Hill  of  Job."  Near  this  hill  is 
a  stone  on  which  the  patriarch  is  said  to  have  rested. 
This  stone  was,  until  recently,  surrounded  by  a 
Moslem  shrine  which  has  fallen  into  decay,  exjjos- 
ing  the  stone  to  view.  It  commemorates  a  visit  of 
Rameses,  the  Pharaoh  of  the  oppression.  On  the 
top  of  the  stone  is  a  tablet  containing  a  representa- 
tion of  the  winged  disc  of  the  sun,  under  which,  in 
the  usual  Egyptian  style,  is  the  figure  of  the  monarch 
giving  ottering  to  the  Goddess  Maat.  Over  the 
head  of  the  king  is  his  hieroglyphic  name:  "  i?a- 
usar-ma-setep-en-Ra'''' — "The    Sun,    powerful    by 


THINGS    CALLED    BY    WROXG    NAMES.  3 

truth,  approved  by  the  Snn,"  which  was  the  throne 
name  of  Rameses  II. 

So  the  tomb  of  Abel  fifteen  miles  north  of 
Damascus  derived  its  name  from  the  ancient  cit}'  of 
Abila  and  never  held  the  body  of  the  first  man 
murdered. 

The  Egyptian  Sphinx.  —  Strict  accuracy  would 
not  permit  the  stone-hewed  statue  of  the  goddess 
Armachis  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile  to  be  called 
"  the  Sphinx."  The  Greeks  having  their  legend  of 
a  winged  woman  with  the  body  of  a  monster  found 
a  fanciful  resemblance  to  her  in  this  piece  of  ancient 
sculpture  and  called  it  the  Sphinx. 

The  Reservoir  of  1001  Columns. —  This  reser- 
voir has  not  a  drop  of  water  in  it,  and  is  little  more 
than  a  musty  cellar  with  a  few  i^illars  dotted  here 
and  there.  It  was  built  by  Constantine  about  the 
year  330,  and  had  only  212  columns.  The  Orientals 
are  fond  of  special  numbers  standing  for  an  indefi- 
nite one.  "  Forty  "  and  "  1001 "  are  good  examples, 
as  in  the  story  of  Ali  Baba  in  the  "Thousand 
Nisrhts  and  One  Night." 

Kensington.  —  Kensington  Palace  is  not  in 
Kensington  at  all,  but  in  the  Westminster  parish 
of  St.  Margaret.  Westminster  vestry  draws  £220  a 
year  in  rates  from  the  Palace.  Almost  the  whole 
of  Kensington  Gardens  is  in  Westminster,  and  what 
does  not  belong  to  Westminster  is  within  the  paro- 
chial area  of  Paddington. 

Palaces  that  are  not  Palaces.  —  Often   the 


4  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

name  "  palace,"  though  sanctioned  by  the  usage  of 
the  present  century,  is  historically  an  error.  Not 
every  house  occupied  by  a  bishop  becomes,  ipso 
facto,  a  palace.  "  The  term  palace  is,  .  strictly 
speaking,  applicable  only  to  the  residence  of  a 
bishop  in  his  cathedral  city.  We  may  properly 
speak  of  the  palace  at  Wells,  Chichester,  Hereford, 
Lincoln,  and  the  other  places  where  the  bishop 
lives  under  the  shadow  of  his  cathedral,  but  the 
name  is  misapplied  to  bishops'  houses  such  as 
Fulham  and  Lambeth.  They  were  manor  houses 
and  nothing  more,  and  the  prelates  occupying 
them  dated  their  letters  '  from  my  manor  house 
at  Lambeth  or  Fulham,'  etc.,  as  the  case  might 
be." 

Lambeth  Palace,  though  occupied  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  is  not  in  its  own  diocese,  but 
is  in  the  diocese  of  Westminster.  For  more  than  a 
hundred  and  sixty  years  it  was  officially  styled 
"  Lambeth  House."  Previously  Archbishop  Laud, 
when  he  resided  there,  bestowed  on  it  the  title  of 
Lambeth  Manor.  The  residence  of  the  Archbishop 
of  York  is  sometimes  called  "the  palace,"  but  it 
was,  and  is,  simply  a  manor  house. 

Westminster  Abbey.  —  That  venerable  corner- 
stone of  English  history,  "Westminster  Abbey," 
has  never  been  an  abbey.  It  is  the  "church"  of 
the  Abbey  of  Westminster.  The  "  Abbey,"  tliat  is, 
the  monastery,  disappeared  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
VHL     The  legal   title,    since    1560,    when   Queen 


THINGS    CALLED    BY    WRONG    NAMES.  O 

Elizabeth  replaced  the  Abbot  by  a  Dean,  is  the 
*'  Collegiate  Church  of  St.  Peter, ^  in  Westminster." 

The  *'  White  "  Tower.— From  a  Latin  document 
of  the  year  1241  it  appears  that  the  great  Norman 
keep,  originally  called  Ci^sar's  Tower,  the  centre 
of  the  Tower  of  London,  was  called  the  "  White  " 
Tower  from  the  coat  of  whitewash  with  which  it 
was  covered.  Frowning,  formidable,  this  "  White" 
Tower  rises  with  its  four  jDinnacles  above  all  the 
other  sombre  battlements  of  London's  ancient  cita- 
del. Its  walls  are  dark  and  gloomy,  and  behind 
them  some  of  the  blackest  deeds  in  England's  his- 
tory have  been  done.     And  yet  it  is  called  ♦'  White." 

Jack  straw's  Castle.  —  On  Hampstead  Heath 
once  existed  a  fortress  known  as  Jack  Straw's 
Castle.  It  was  not  a  castle.  It  was  a  hole  formed 
in  the  hillside  on  the  site  of  the  inn  of  the  same 
name..  Jack,  who  was  one  of  the  leaders  in  the 
Wat  Tyler  Insurrection,  is  said  to  have  lived  in  it. 

The  "Apostles'  Creed."  —  The  ''Apostles' 
Creed"  is  not  of  apostolic  origin.  "  The  tradition 
which  [that]  ascribes  it  to  the  Apostles  them- 
selves," says  the  Encyclopasdia  Britannica,  *'  has 
no  authority,  and  does  not  reach  beyond  the 
fifth  century,  if  it  can  be  carried  so  far.  The  def- 
inite source  of  the  legend  is  supposed  to  be  two 
sermons  spuriously  attributed  to  St.  Augustine,  and 
found  in  the  appendix  to  his  works."     It  is  found 

1  Edward  the  Confessor's  Church. 


b  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

in  the  works  of  Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan  (374- 
397),  but  is  supposed  to  have  been  included  since 
his  death. 

•'Nihilists"  are  Really  "Radicals."— The 
term  "Nihilist"  was  first  used  in  Turgeniefs 
"Fathers  and  Sons,"  where  young  Bazarof,  asked 
what  his  creed  was,  replied:  "I  am  a  Nihilist  — 
I  believe  in  nothing."  It  was  afterwards  applied 
to  those  who  advocated  the  abolition  of  all  forms 
of  government  and  the  violent  removal  of  rulers. 
Of  course  there  are  some  even  now  to  whom  this 
signification  would  be  appropriate,  but  they  do 
not  constitute  the  ruling  majority  of  the  Russian 
revolutionary  party.  The  program  given  by 
Stepniak  is  thus  set  forth :  Liberty  in  religious 
belief,  freedom  of  the  press  and  in  public  meet- 
ing, and  government  on  the  representative  system. 
Surely  this  is  not  nihil.  The  program  is  not  even 
republican  in  character.  Stepniak  says:  "We  all 
understand  quite  well  that  in  contemporar}'  Russia 
political  liberty  can  be  obtained  only  in  the  form  of 
constitutional  monarchy." 

Wopkingmen  are  not  '*  Proletarians."  — 
According  to  the  historical  tradition,  the  sixth 
Roman  king,  Servius  Tullius,  divided  the  whole 
people  into  five  classes,  by  means  of  a  census 
or  register  of  tlie  inhabitants  and  their  jjrop- 
erty,  thus  determining  the  tax  {tribulum)  which 
each  citizen  was  to  pay,  the  kind  of  military  ser- 
vice he  was  to  perform,  and  the  position  he  would 


THINGS    CALLED    BY    WRONG    NAMES.  7 

hold  in  the  popular  assembly.  Each  classis  or  array 
was  divided  into  centuries.  Those  persons  whose 
property  did  not  amount  to  the  minimum  held  by 
the  members  of  the  fifth  classis  (at  least  10,000  cop- 
per asses,  or  about  $150)  formed  a  separate  cen- 
tury consisting  of  three  subdivisions,  in  the  second 
of  which  were  the  proletarii  or  "  begetters  of  chil- 
dren," their  sole  value  consisting  in  the  possibility 
of  their  furnishing  oflfspring  for  the  State.  These 
had  not  less  than  375  asses,  they  paid  no  taxes,  and 
in  time  of  danger  might  be  armed  at  i^ublic  expense. 
The  word  soon  became  a  term  of  contempt,  as  of 
one  suj^ported  at  the  cost  of  the  community,  hence 
a  pauper.  The  word  "  proletarian  "  or  "  proletaire  " 
has  of  late  years  been  unfortunately  applied  in  the 
writings  of  Henry  George  and  others  to  designate 
certain  members  of  the  working  classes,  wage 
earners,  or  day  laborers.  But  it  is  absurd  to  call 
working  men  by  such  a  title. 

Don't  call  an  Australian  Black  a  *'  Native."  — 
The  descendants  of  the  earlier  settlers  of  Australia 
object  to  any  one  calling  the  black  inhabitants 
"natives."  The  title  in  their  opinion  belongs  only 
to  them,  and  when  applied  to  the  "  blacks"  implies 
an  insult.  They  claim  that  only  the  terms  "  abo- 
rigines" or  "  bushmen  "  should  be  used  to  signify 
the  original  inhabitants. 

Lucifer  is  not  Satan.  —  Lucifer  as  a  popular 
name  for  Satan  undoubtedly  derives  from  Isaiah 
XIV.,  12,  which  in  the  King  James  version  reads: 


8  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

"  How  art  thou  fallen  from  heaven,  0  Lucifer,  son 
of  the  mor7iing ! ''"'  In  the  revised  version  the  word 
Lucifer,  which  literally  means  "  light-bringer,"  is 
rendered  "  day  star,"  It  is  applied  by  Isaiah  figu- 
ratively to  a  king  of  Babylon,  but  from  this  passage, 
and  its  resemblance  to  the  account  of  the  fallen 
archangel  in  the  Talmud  and  in  Milton's  "Paradise 
Lost,"  the  name  was  by  the  early  church  fathers  also 
given  to  Satan.  Milton  nowhere  calls  Satan  Lucifer, 
and  the  name  in  early  times  was  borne  by  one  of 
the  popes,  and  also  by  a  bishop  of  Cagliari  in  Sar- 
dinia, a  separatist  defender  of  the  Nicene  creed  — 
the  founder  of  the  sect  of  Luciferians. 

Why  ♦♦  Cabby"  is  a  "Jehu."  — The  popular 
name  for  a  London  cabby  is  a  "Jehu;"  but  as 
the  original  Jehu  was  a  king  of  Israel,  noted 
for  his  furious  driving,  this  is  a  sarcastic  appel- 
lation, what  the  rhetoricians  call  a  luciis  a  non 
lucendo. 

"Lord"  Bacon  a  Misnomep.  —  Francis  Bacon 
became  Baron  Verulam  in  1618,  and  Viscount  St. 
Albans  in  1621,  but  the  popular  designation  of  him 
as  "Lord"  Bacon  is  incorrect. 

"  Bones "  of  Contention.  —  Many  ignorant 
families,  especially  of  foreign  extraction,  miscall 
their  own  names.  Thus  at  one  time  the  Des  Isles 
pronounced  their  name  "  Desizzle."  The  L'Hom- 
medieu  family  was  called  "  the  Lummydoos."  The 
celebrated  preacher  and  leather  seller  for  whom 
the  Parliament  (of  1653)  was  deservedly  named  — 


THINGS    CALLED    BY    WRONG    NAMES.  \) 

♦*  Praise-God  Barebones  "  —  always  subscribed  him- 
self Prayse  Barbon. 

Sunstroke  not  Chargeable  to  the  Sun.  — The 
common  term  '♦  sunstroke,"  the  eifect  of  great  heat, 
is  a  misnomer.  "  Heat  apoplexy"  would  be  more 
accurate,  but  not  so  convenient.  Many  persons 
suppose  that  it  is  caused  only  by  direct  exposure 
to  the  sun's  rays.  This  is  not  so,  for  patients  are 
frequently  found  in  houses  and  barracks  and  tents, 
and  at  night  as  well  as  by  day;  and,  wiiether 
in  sun  or  shade,  are  generally  those  whose  health 
is  debilitated  by  dissipation,  disease,  and  over- 
fatigue. Exposure  to  intense  sun-rays  is  to  be  less 
feared  in  dry  climates  than  in  countries  where  the 
temperature  is  much  lower,  but  the  atmosphere  is 
moist  and  perspiration  is  consequently  retarded. 
People  suffer  more  from  a  temperature  of  87°  Fahr. 
at  Brussels,  where  the  air  is  laden  with  moisture, 
than  of  122°  Fahr.  at  Cairo,  where  the  air  is 
extremely  dry.  General  Greely  says:  "The  in- 
habitants of  the  eastern  coast  of  the  United  States 
hear  with  amazement  of  temperatures  from  118° 
to  128°  Fahr.  being  tolerated  without  harm  in  the 
dry  region  of  Arizona  and  South  Colorado,  and 
that  the  ordinary  avocations  [sic]  of  farm  and 
factory  are  pursued  without  inconvenience."  This 
is  due  to  the  cooling  effect  of  rapid  evaporation 
from  the  surface  of  the  body,  and  hence  the  sun's 
malignancy  is  unknown. 

Stars  do  not  "Fall"  or  "  Shoot." —  " Falling 


10  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

stars  ''or  "  shooting  stars  "  are  not  stars  at  all,  but 
meteors.  Stars  are  immense  bodies,  in  many 
cases  larger  than  our  sun,  and  revolving  at  such 
enormous  distances  from  us  that  their  positions 
remain  relatively  fixed.     Meteors  are  small  bodies 

—  the  vast  majority  weighing  less  than  a  pound  each 

—  which  in  j^assing  through  our  protecting  atmos- 
phere are  subjected  to  such  intense  friction  that 
they  are  reduced  to  dust.  Only  in  rare  cases  do 
they  reach  the  earth. 

Gothic  Apehiteeture  not  invented  by  the 
Goths.  —  Gothic  architecture,  that  is  to  say  the 
ecclesiastical  architecture  characterized  by  pointed 
arches,  is  not  in  any  way  associated  with  the  Goths. 
The  Italian  renaissance  writers  applied  the  term 
Goth  or  Gothic  in  contempt  to  that  medieeval  style 
of  building  prevalent  in  certain  parts  of  Europe, 
just  as  they  applied  it  to  anything  else  that  they 
considered  ugly  or  in  bad  taste.  In  the  literature 
of  a  hundred  years  ago  articles  of  native  manu- 
facture brought  to  England  from  New  Zealand  and 
elsewhere  were  frequently  called  Gothic. 

Venetian  Glass.  —  Much  of  so-called  Venetian 
glass  is  not  made  in  Venice,  but  in  Murano.  The 
word  "Venetian"  may  perhaps  be  considered  as 
derived  from  the  province  of  Veneto,  of  which 
Venice  is  the  capital,  but  of  which  Murano  was 
the  ancient  seat. 

Dresden  China  in  Dresden.  — The  Royal  Dres- 
den china  is  not  made  at  Dresden,  but  at  a  gov- 


THINGS    CALLED    BY    WRONG    NAMES.         11 

ernment  factory  at  Meissen  thirteen  miles  farther 
down  the  Elbe;  but  by  a  fair  exchange  Meissen 
ware  is  manufactured  at  Dresden. 

Dutch  Clocks.  —  Dutch  clocks  are  all  ''made  in 
Germany/'  chiefly  at  Freyburg,  in  the  Black  Forest. 
Dutch  is  only  our  way  of  mispronouncing  Deutsch, 
by  which  the  Germans  call  their  own  language. 

"  Chamois  "  Leather  a  Sham.  —  Our  German 
silver  (which,  by  the  way,  is  not  of  German  origin, 
but  has  been  known  in  China  for  centuries)  we 
clean  with  leather  which  is  called  chamois  or 
"  chammy  skin."  This  leather  is  not  derived  from 
the  chamois,  —  which,  if  we  may  believe  the  re- 
doubtable Tartarin  of  Tarascon,  is  an  all  but  extinct 
quadruped,  —  but  is  the  flesh  side  of  sheepskin, 
reduced  to  an  even  thickness  with  pumice  stone, 
and  soaked  in  lime  water  and  a  solution  of  sul- 
phuric acid.  After  being  fulled  with  wooden  ham- 
mers, fish  oil  is  poured  over  it.  This  process  is 
several  times  repeated,  and  after  careful  washing 
in  a  solution  of  potash,  it  is  wrung,  dried,  made 
supple  by  stretching,  and  finally  polished  by  roll- 
ing. The  word  itself  may  be  derived  from  the 
Swedish  samsk  or  the  Romany  chamische,  mean- 
ing leather.  Others  derive  it  from  the  Dutch  sam, 
soft. 

Camel's-hair,  Moleskin,  and  Catgut.  —  Camel- 
hair  paint-brushes  are  all  made  from  the  hair  of 
the  squirrel,  and  mole-skin  is  a  strong  cotton 
fabric  of  fustian,  having  a   soft,  smooth   surface. 


12  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

The  little  strip  that  fastens  the  fish-hook  to  a  line 
is  really  silk.  The  manufacture  is  carried  on  in 
Spain.  When  the  silkworms  are  about  to  spin, 
they  are  thrown  into  tubs  of  vinegar  and  left  there 
some  time.  When  SLiflftciently  pickled  they  are 
carefully  opened  by  women  and  children,  who  take 
out  the  glutinous  unspun  silk  and  draw  it  into 
strands  about  two  feet  long.  These  are  left  to  dry, 
and  the  particles  of  the  worm  are  rubbed  off.  After 
the  wrinkled  ends  —  about  half  of  the  strand  —  are 
cut  off,  they  are  tied  up  into  bunches  with  colored 
wool  and  sent  to  all  parts,  of  the  world.  We  call  it 
catgut.  The  "  catgut ''  used  for  stringed  instru- 
ments  is  made  from  the  intestines  of  sheep. 

Frauds  in  the  Larder.  —  So-called  "soluble" 
cocoas  are  really  only  miscible ;  orange  "marma- 
lade, "  according  to  the  purists,  has  nothing  of  the 
nature  of  real  marmalade  about  it  excej^t  its 
color,  and  should  simply  be  called  orange  jam,  for 
they  say  real  marmalade  is  made  from  the  quince, 
called  by  the  Portuguese  marmelo,  and  when  made 
into  jam,  marmelada ;  the  word  is  derived  from  the 
Greek  77ieH,  honey,  and  mdon,  an  apple. 

Cream  of  tartar  has  no  cream  in  it ;  black  lead  is 
not  lead  at  all,  but  is  a  compound  of  carbon  and  iron, 
another  form  of  soot,  or  charcoal,  or  diamond, 
whichever  is  preferred ;  for  these,  including  black 
lead,  are  all  chemically  the  same  substance,  though 
in  different  forms.  The  ordinary  "quart"  bottle 
will  only  hold  one  pint  and  a  third  instead  of  two 


THINGS    CALLED    BY    WRONG    NAMKS.  13 

pints.  The  scaling  "  wax"  with  which  it  is  sealed 
does  not  contain  a  particle  of  wax,  but  is  com- 
pounded from   shellac  and  Venice  turpentine. 

Country  Dances.  —  This  dance  denotes  no  ref- 
erence to  the  country.  It  is  properly  a  "contra" 
dance,  from  the  French  contredanse.  De  Quincey 
argues  in  favor  of  retaining  the  corruj)tion,  since  it 
has  taken  root  in  the  language. 

Cork  Legs.  —  There  is  no  trace  of  cork  about 
a  cork  leg,  apart  from  the  name.  The  name  arises 
from  the  fact  that  nearly  all  the  great  manufactur- 
ers of  such  articles  were  established  in  Cork  street, 
Piccadilly.  Nevertheless  the  latest  dictionaries 
declare  that  cork  is  frequently  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  artificial  limbs.  Papier  mache  is  the  sub- 
stance now  chiefly  used,  at  least  in  America,  for 
that  purpose. 


14  TUE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


CHAPTER  II. 

MISTAKES   WE   MAKE   ABOUT   PLACES. 

lee  in  Iceland.  —  One  would  conclude,  from 
the  name  only,  that  Iceland  is  a  land  of  ice.  It  is 
no  more  so  than  Greenland  is  a  land  of  verdure. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  land  of  abundant  meadows, 
sustaining  great  flocks  of  horned  sheep  and  herds 
of  cattle  and  ponies,  and  producing  potatoes,  cab- 
bages, and  turnips.  Extremes  of  temperature  are 
unknown  in  Iceland.  There  are  glaciers,  but  they 
form  no  icebergs,  and  the  sea  around  the  island  is 
never  frozen.  Owing  to  the  Gulf  stream  the  climate 
is  mild  in  winter  and  balmy  in  summer,  yet  is  just 
insufficiently  favorable  for  the  maturing  of  corn 
and  fruit. 

Cold  Winters. —Yakutsk  is  not  the  coldest 
town  on  earth ;  this  distinction  belongs  to  Vercho- 
yansk  in  the  same  locality,  which,  according  to  the 
report  of  the  Geological  Society  of  St.  Petersburg, 
holds  the  record  of  minus  67°  centigrade.  The 
reading  of  the  thermometer  gives  a  very  exagger- 
ated impression  of  the  severity  of  low  temperatures. 
The  author  of  "  Twenty  Years  on  the  Saskatche- 
wan," writing  from  Edmonton  (Alberta  in  Canada), 
says  :  "I  have  known  the  temperature  so  mild  that 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    PLACES.        15 

the  birds  have  been  singing  most  of  the  time,  and 
very  little  extra  clothes  have  been  worn  ;  and  again 
for  weeks  together  the  glass  has  been  between  36o 
and  50°  below  zero.  Yet  our  cold  winters  have 
been  the  healthiest  and  the  succeeding  summers 
generally  the   most   fruitful.^'' 

The  Roof  of  the  World.  —  The  name  Pamir  is 
Russian  and  means  "  On  [top  of]  the  world."  But 
the  highest  land  is  now  believed  to  be  the  Chang 
plateau,  lying  north  of  and  running  nearly  parallel 
to  the  head -waters  of  the  Western  Brahmapootra, 
or  Sango.  This  might  well  be  called  "  The  Roof 
of  the  World." 

Fuji-yama.  —  The  beautiful  snow-capped  peak 
of  Central  Japan,  Fuji,  so  often  pictured  in  Kake- 
monos and  pi  mis,  is  frequently  seen  under  the  form 
Fuji-yama  or  Fuji-san.  Either  affix  means  'moun- 
tain. It  is  therefore  tautological  to  say  "  the  re- 
markable mountain  of  Fuji-yama."  There  are 
many  "  yamas"  in  Japan,  there  is  only  one  Fuji  in 
the  world ;  and  that  name  is  also  given  out  of  com- 
pliment to  Japan's  famous  warship. 

Mistakes  about  other  Mountains.  —  It  is  a  com- 
mon impression  that  Mount  Blanc  is  in  Switzerland. 
It  is  wholly  within  the  French  frontier  province  of 
Haute  Savoie.  Mount  St.  Elias  is  not  the  highest 
mountain  in  North  America ;  there  are  two  if  not 
three  peaks  in  the  Mt.  St.  Elias  region  of  Alaska 
known  to  be  higher  than  St.  Elias.  The  highest  is 
about  19,500  feet.     A  peak  about  1,500  feet  higher 


16 


THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


is  named  after  Sir  William  "  Logan,"  founder  of  the 
Canadian  Geological  Survey.  Both  of  these  moun- 
tains are  in  British  territory,  as  has  been  confirmed 
since  1887  by  the  Canada- Alaska  Boundary  Survey. 
The  usual  statement  that  Mount  Ararat  was  the 
place  on  which  Noah's  ark  rested  has  no  foundation 
in  the  Hebrew  text,  which  reads :  "  On  the  moun- 
tains of  Ararat."  Ararat  was  the  ancient  name  of 
a  district  in  Eastern  Armenia,  and  has  been  used  for 
all  Armenia. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  interesting  to  give 
the  greatest  altitudes  in  each  State  in  the  Union. 

GREATEST   ALTITUDES   IN  EACH   STATE. 

FROM    THE    RECORDS    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES    GEOLOGI- 
CAL   SURVEY. 


State  or 
Territory. 


Name  of  Place. 


Height. 


Alabama  . 
Alaska  . . . 
Arizona  . . 
Arkansas  . 
California 


Colorado [Blanca  Peak 

Connecticut. . .  Bear  Mt 

Delaware !  Dupont 

I),  of  Columbia' Tenley 

Florida I  Highland  . . . 

Georgia jEnota  Mt 

Idaho Mead  Peak  ^ 


Cheauha  Mt.  (Talladega  Co.) 

(Not  named) 

San  Francisco  Mt 

Magazine  Mt 

Mt.  Whitney 


2,407 

1!>,500 

12,79-t 

2,800 

14,898 

14,464 

2,355 

282 

400 

210 

4,798 

10,541 


1  Salmon  River  mountains,  known  to  be  much  higher,  but  the 

elevation  is  not  definitely  known. 


lytlSTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    PLACES.        17 


State  or 
Territory. 


Illinois 

Indian  Terrify. 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts . 

Michigan 

Minnesota  . . . . 
Mississippi. . . . 

Missouri 

Montana 

Nebraska 

Nevada ,. 

N.  Hampshire. 
New  Jersey  . . . 
New  Mexico  . . 
New  York  .  . . . 
North  Carolina. 
North  Dakota. 

Ohio 

Oklahoma 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania  . 
Rhode  Island  . 
South  Carolina. 
South  Dakota. 
Tennessee  . . . . 

Texas 

Utah 

Vermont 

Virginia 


Name  of  Place. 


Warren 

Wichita  Mts 

Haley 

Ocheyedan 

Kanarado 

Big  Black  Mt.  (Harlan  Co. ) . . . 

Mansfield    .^^ 

Katahdin  Mt.  (Kataadn) 

Great  Backbone  Mt 

Mt.  Greylock 

Porcupine  Mt 

Woodstock 

Pontotic  Ridge 

Cedar  Gap 

Mt.  Douglas 

White  River  Summit 

Wheeler  Peak 

Mount  Washington 

Kittatinny  Mountain 

Cerro  Blanco 

Mt.  Marcy  (Adirondack) 

Mt.  Mitchell 

Sentinel  Butte 

Ontario    

Goodwin    

Mt.  Hood 

Negro  Mt 

Durfee  Hill 

Rocky  Mt.  (Pickens  Co.) 

Harney  Peak 

Mt.  Leconte 

North  Franklin  Mt 

Mt.   Emmons 

Mt.  Mansfield 

Mt.  Rogers  (Grayson  Co.) 


Height. 


1,009 
2,500 
1,140 
1,554 
3,900 
4,100 
321 
5,200 
3,400 
5,535 
2,023 
1,826 
566 
1,675 

11,300 
4,876 

13,036 
6,286 
1,630 

14,269 
5,379 
6,703 
2,707 
1,376 
2,536 

11,225 
2,826 
805 
3,600 
7,368 
6,612 
7,069 

13,694 
4,430 
5,719 


18 


THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


State  or 
Territory. 


Washington. . . 
West  Virginia, 
Wisconsin  . . . , 
Wyoming 


Name  of  Place. 


Mt.  Eainier 

Spruce  Mt.  (Pendleton  Co.) 

Summit  Lake 

Fremont  Peak 


Height. 


14,444 
4,860 
1,732 

13.790 


Untep  den  Linden.  —  An  1897  geography  de- 
scribes the  most  famous  thorouglifare  in  Berlin, 
Unter  den  Linden  (under  the  lime-trees),  as  '*  a 
wide,  open  drive,  with  six  parallel  rows  of  shady 
lime-trees  runnino^  alono^."  The  truth  is,  the  lime- 
trees  are  so  few,  and  so  insignificant,  that  the  name 
now  signifies  nothing. 

Scottish  *'  Shires  "  are  Misnomers.  —  In  most 
newspapers  that  portion  of  Scotland  properly 
called  Sutherland  is  misnamed  Sutherlandshire. 
One  may  as  well  write  Northumberlandshire  or 
Cornwallshire.  Shire  is  essentially  Anglo-Saxon, 
and  ought  to  distinguish  exclusively  a  Saxon  occu- 
pation of  certain  parts  of  England,  not  of  Scot- 
land, where  the  Saxons  never  went.  To  this 
loose  v/ay  of  using  shire  the  allotropic  condition  of 
''■  Argyleshire"  is  due.  The  first  part  of  the  word, 
meaning  "  the  land  of  the  Gael,"  shows  it  to  be  a 
memorial  of  Irish  colonizations,  but  the  affix  makes 
it  the  land  of  the  Saxon. 

Such  names  as  Devonshire  and  jNIerionethshire 
are  not  entitled  to  the  retention  of  shire,  for  the 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    PLACES.         19 

Saxons  never  occupied  any  considerable  portion  of 
the  first,  or  penetrated  the  second. 

Jutland.  —  Many  take  it  for  granted,  because 
of  the  suggestive  spelling,  that  this  Danish  penin- 
sula is  so  named  on  account  of  its  jutting  out  into 
the  sea.  There  is  no  connection  between  these 
words,  not  properly  even  in  the  sound,  for  the  sig- 
nification is  that  this  land  formerly  belonged  to  the 
Jutes,  and  the  correct  pronunciation  is  FooMand. 

Holland.  —  More  than  one  school  geography 
states  that  the  word  Holland  means  "  hollow 
land."  Skeat's  etymological  dictionary  gives  the 
same  derivation,  adding  that  it  means  "  low- 
lying."  Littre  derives  it  from  hohl  and  land,  with 
the  same  signification.  The  same  authority  men- 
tions the  theory  that  it  comes  from  holt,  meaning 
wood;  thence  an  island  on  which  Dortrecht  is  situ- 
ated, and  by  extension  the  whole  land ;  again,  it 
may  come  from  Helium  or  Helle,  the  ancient 
name  of  one  of  the  mouths  of  the  Meuse,  Hol- 
land for  Hel-land. 

Oxford  and  the  Bosporos.  —  This  word  is 
compounded  from  bous,  a  bullock,  cow,  or  ox,  and 
poros,  a  passage.  This  suggests  the  fallacious 
etymological  derivation  of  the  English  Oxford  — 
the  ford  of  the  oxen,  which  is  from  the  Keltic  nisga, 
water,  and/orcZ.  The  Greek  myth  that  lo,  changed 
into  a  white  cow  by  Zeus,  was  chased  over  the 
world  by  a  gad-fly  sent  by  the  jealous  Here  caused 
several  straits  to  be  named  Bosporos.     The  best 


20  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

known  are  the  Thracian,  the  Kinimerian,  and  the 
Indian. 

Mopea.  —  The  name  given  in  modern  geography 
to  the  ancient  Peloponnesus  (Southern  Greece)  is 
derived  from  the  Shivonic  more,  the  *'  sea,"  and  not 
from  a  word  which  indicates  its  fancied  resemblance 
to  a  mulbeny  leaf,  as  taught  in  hundreds  of  schools 
every  day.  The  Morea  is  more  deeply  indented  by 
the  sea  than  any  other  European  country.  The 
same  root  is  found  in  the  word  Pomerania,  which 
means  "on  the  sea." 

Gaul.  —  This  word  did  not  in  ancient  times 
designate  merely  the  country  now  called  France; 
historical  class-books  lead  one  to  suppose  that  it 
did.  As,  at  the  present  time,  Britain  includes 
Scotland  and  Wales  as  well  as  England,  so  Gaul  in 
Roman  times  included  Belgium  and  Switzerland  as 
well  as  France.  "All  Gaul  is  divided  into  three 
parts,"  says  Csesar  in  the  first  sentence  of  his 
"  Commentaries." 

Babylon  and  Babel.  —  Popular  etymology  de- 
duces the  meaning  of  these  names  from  the  Hebrew 
"  confusion,"  after  the  explanation  of  Gen.  xi.,  9. 
Webster's  Dictionary  says  Babel  is  "  for  balbel, 
from  balal,  to  mix,  confound  ;  "  but  it  adds  that  "  it  is 
more  probably  a  contraction  from  beth  and  bel,  the 
house  of  Belus,  equivalent  to  Baal,"  but  the  word 
in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  is  Ca-dimirra,  the 
Semitic  translation  of  which  is  bab-ili  or  bab-El, 
"  Gate  of  God." 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    PLACES.        21 

Calvary.  —  The  Gospels  do  not  confirm  the 
assertion  that  the  place  of  our  Lord's  crucifixion 
bore  the  specific  name  of  Mount  Calvary.  The 
word  "Calvary"  in  Luke  xxiii.,  33,  is  from  the 
Latin  word  calvarium,  which  means  a  skull,  and 
is  the  same  in  significance  as  the  Hebrew  gugo 
leth ;  possibly,  therefore,  a  bald  hill  (Latin  calvtis, 
bald). 

Baffin  Bay  is  not  a  Bay.  —  Of  names  ''writ  in 
water"  none  could  be  more  inaiopropriate  than 
Baffin  Bay,  which  not  even  in  shai3e  is  a  bay,  but 
is  an  immense  inland  sea,  much  larger  than  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  and  having  nearly  six  times 
the  area  of  the  Black  Sea. 

Hudson  Bay. —  Hudson  "Bay,"  which  is 
scarcely  smaller  than  Baffin  "Bay,"  should  also 
be  called  a  sea.  "Hudson's  Bay"  is  the  way  it 
is  spelt  in  literature,  yet  on  any  map  the  spelling 
is  always  Hudson  Bay. 

Nelson  River.  —  The  great  Nelson  Elver  is  not 
named  after  the  naval  hero,  but  after  another  British 
sailor  of  the  same  name,  the  master  of  one  of  Sir 
T.  Button's  ships,  who  died  and  was  buried  there  in 
1612. 

Bering  Strait.  — The  strait  generally  called 
Behring  should  be  Bering  Strait.  The  South  Ken- 
sington Natural  History  Museum  specimens  from 
this  region  are  all  labelled  "Bering,"  after  the 
Danish  navigator,  Bering,  who  proved  that  Asia 
and   America  are   separated.     He  died  on  Bering 


22  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Island,  in  the  Bering  Sea.  It  is  thus  oflScially 
recognized  by  the  United  States  Government. 

There  were  Thipty-nine  Cinque  Ports.  — 
Cinque  is  French  for  "  five,"  and  originally  there 
were  only  five  ports  forming  a  confederacy  that 
maintained  a  royal  navy  on  outpost  duty.  But 
shortly  after  the  Conquest  two  others  were  added 
in  Kent  and  Sussex.  From  time  to  time  thirty-two 
other  ports  joined  the  association,  making  in  all 
thirty-nine,  but  the  name  "Cinque"  was  still 
retained. 

Korea.  —  Corea  is  more  accurately  spelt  with  a 
"K"  —  Korea.  Such  is  the  official  spelling  origi- 
nally promulgated  by  the  Royal  Geographical  Soci- 
ety. The  kingdom  was  originally  called  in  Chinese 
*'  Korai,"  which  is  an  abbreviation  of  Ko-Korai,  its 
founder,  who  obtained  the  mastery  about  the  sixth 
centur3^  But  for  hundreds  of  years,  ever  since  the 
complete  overthrow  of  this  kingdom  by  thefoimders 
of  the  present  one,  that  name  has  been  discarded. 
It  would  be  fiir  better  to  have  adopted  the  native 
name  Cho-sen,  not,  however,  with  any  implication 
that  they  are  the  chosen  people. 

The  Blarney  Stone. —It  is  said  that  in  1825 
Sir  Walter  Scott,  while  on  a  tour  through  the  South 
of  Ireland,  kissed  the  Blarney  Stone,  as  thousands 
of  tourists  imagine  they  do  eveiy  year. 

The  wonder-working  stone  —  a  block  bearing 
the  name  of  the  founder  of  Blarney  Castle,  and 
the  date  of  1146  —  is  built  into  the  south  angle  of 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    PLACES.        23 

the  keep,  twenty  feet  below  the  top,  and  outside. 
Since  access  to  it  is  well-nigh  impossible,  a  substi- 
tute within  the  battlements  is  imposed  on  the  credu- 
lous. But  for  visitors  who  insist  on  leaning  over 
the  edge,  supported  by  the  heels,  there  is  yet 
another  real  stone,  dated  1703. 

A  Desert  that  is  Fertile. —The  Kalahari 
"desert"  is  not  the  waste  of  sand  and  stone  that 
a  typical  desert  should  be.  According  to  Mr.  J.  T. 
Bent,  author  of  "  The  Ruined  Cities  of  Mashona- 
land,"  it  is  *♦  a  vast  undulating  expanse  of  country 
covered  with  timber  —  the  mimosa  or  camel-thorn, 
the  mapani-bush,  and  others  which  reach  the  water 
with  their  roots,  though  there  are  no  ostensible 
water  sources  above  the  ground.  Wild  animals 
rapidly  becoming  extinct  elsewhere  abound  there- 
in." We  read  further  on  that  the  wild  tribes 
exhibit  great  skill  in  finding  the  water  when  the 
season  is  dry,  "by  suction  through  a  reed  inserted 
in  the  ground,  the  results  being  spat  into  a  gourd 
and  handed  to  the  thirsty  traveller  to  drink." 
Many  other  so-called  deserts  abound  in  wild  shrubs 
or  grass,  and  require  only  systematic  irrigation  to 
become  veritable  gardens. 

Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  —  Scientific  researches 
tell  us  that  the  traditionary  sites  of  the  cities  of 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  covered  by  the  Dead  Sea, 
are  geologically  impossible. 

Arabia  Felix.  — That  part  of  Arabia  called 
Felix,   or  the    Happy,    was   called   by   the   Arabs 


24  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Yemen,  meaiiino^  the  land  to  the  ri^ht  of  Mecca. 
The  Latin  writers  took  it  in  the  sense  of  dexter, 
fortunate ;  hence  Felix,  happy. 

Antwerp. —The  heraldic  cognizance  of  Ant- 
werp is  said  to  be  two  hands  referring  to  the  popu- 
lar derivation  of  the  city's  name :  from  handt  iver- 
pcn,  hand  throwing,  referring  to  the  manufactured 
legend  that  a  giant  named  Antigonus  cut  off  the 
right  hands  of  travellers  that  could  not  pay  toll, 
and  threw  them  into  the  river  Skeld.  The  name 
comes  really  from  aan  and  werf:  "  at  the  wharf." 

Belgrade.  —  The  name  of  this  town  is  not 
French  as  some  have  supposed,  but  is  Slavonic,  from 
bicli,  white,  and  gorod  or  grad,  town.  It  therefore 
means  the  white  town.  But  the  name  white  as 
applied  to  the  Tsar  of  Russia  is  a  literal  translation 
of  the  Mongol  town  Tchagan  Khan,  which  in  turn  is 
from  the  Chinese  character  Hwang,  which  means 
self-ruler,  autocrat;  but  by  a  slight  mistake  in 
making  the  character,  the  symbol  for  self  became 
the  symbol  for  ivhiie. 

Cambridge  not  the  Bridge  on  the  Cam.  —  It  is 
generally  supposed  that  the  name  Cambridge  is  the 
bridge  on  the  Cam.  It  is  really  a  contraction  of 
Cambo-rit-um,  its  ancient  name,  which  means  *'  the 
ford  of  the  Cam  rhyd  or  crooked  river. 

Red  Sea.  —  The  Hebrew  for  this  inland  sea  is 
Yam  Suph,  sea  of  bulrushes.  The  name  Red 
may  refer  to  the  color  of  the  neighboring  inhabi- 
tants. 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    PLACES.         25 

Gates  Misunderstood.  —  The  English  name 
Aldgate  should  properly  be  Algate,  meaning  free  to 
all.  Cripplegate  also  is  wrongly  understood  as  re- 
ferring to  a  gate  frequented  by  beggars.  It  was 
a  covered  way  leading  to  the  barbican.  It  is  odd 
that  Billingsgate,  which  commemorates  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  term  "  family  of  the  Gods,"  should  come  to 
mean  the  rough  language  of  the  slums.  Grub- 
street  is  not  named  because  of  its  eating-houses,  but 
perhaps  because  a  grube,  or  ditch,  may  have  once 
been  there. 

Marylebone.  —  This  familiar  church  is  not  so 
called  from  Marie  la  Bonne  as  some  have  supposed, 
but  from  Mary  le  Bourne,  meaning  the  chapel  of 
St.  Mary  on  the  bourne  or  brook.  It  was  the  same 
brook  that  is  perpetuated  in  Tyburn. 

Mt.  Pilatus  not  Named  after  Pilate.  —  The 
beautiful  mountain  near  Lucerne  did  not  derive  its 
name  from  Pontius  Pilate  having  drowned  himself 
in  the  lake  near  its  top.  Pilatus  should  be  Pileatus, 
the  cloud-cajyped.  In  the  same  way  Chai5eau  Dieu 
near  the  Bay  of  Fundy  became  Shepody  Mountain. 
Neither  does  Monte  Rosa,  as  Wordsworth  says,  take 
its  name  "from  roseate  hues  far  kenned  at  morn 
and  even."     It  comes  from  the  Iveltic  ros,  a  peak. 

Gramerey  Park.  —  The  name  of  this  quiet 
oasis  in  New  York  is  not  French  as  some  suppose, 
but  is  derived  from  the  Dutch  De  Kromme  Zee, 
"the  crooked  pond,"  which  once  occupied  its  site. 

What  a  City  really  Is.  —  The  term  city  in  the 


26  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

United  Kingdom  is  generally  applied  to  a  town 
which  is  incorporated,  and  which  is,  or  was,  the 
seat  of  a  bishop  or  the  capital  of  his  See ;  yet  it 
does  not  necessarily  follow  that  it  must  contain  a 
cathedral. 

St.  Peter's  at  Rome. —  St.  Peter's  at  Rome  is 
generally  supposed  to  be  the  chief  church  of  that 
city,  but  St.  John  Lateran  is  the  cathedral  of  Rome, 
the  Metropolitan  Church  of  .its  bishops,  and,  as  the 
inscription  on  its  statue-laden  facade  asserts, 
"Mother  and  head  of  all  churches  in  the  city  and 
the  world." 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    PLANTS.       27 


CHAPTER  III. 

MISTAKES   WE   MAKE   ABOUT   PLANTS. 

Botanical  Misnomeps.  — The  *' African  "  mari- 
gold is  a  native  of  Mexico ;  the  tuberose  has  noth- 
ing of  the  rose  about  it,  being  simply  a  tuberous 
plant,  and  the  name  is  a  corruption  of  the  Latin 
tiiberosa,  knobby;  "  French^'  beans  originally  came 
from  India ;  toadstools  have  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  toads,  the  name  being  either  a  mistaken  appli- 
cation or  humorous  perversion  of  the  German  tod 
and  stuhl,  meaning  death-stool,  in  reference  to  the 
poisonous  nature  of  these  fungi;  and  the  *'  Jerusa- 
lem" artichoke  (Helianihus  tuberosus)  is  a  native 
of  Peru.  Introduced  by  the  Italians,  it  was  at  first 
called  girasole  articiocco,  which  Englishmen  quickly 
pronounced  in  the  usual  way.  A  girasole  is  a 
sunflower,  which  the  artichoke  closely  resembles. 
The  word  artichoke  comes  from  the  Arabic  alkhar- 
shicf. 

Coffee  **  Berry."  —  The  coffee  "berry"  is  not 
a  berry,  but  a  seed.  The  fruit  of  the  coffee  tree  is 
a  berry  which  has  the  shape  and  color  of  a  ripe 
cherry,  and  it  would  puzzle  most  persons  to  dis- 
tinguish a  heap  of  real  coffee  berries  from  the 
edible  fruit.     Each  berry  contains  two  seeds,  lying 


28  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

with  the  flat  sides  together,  and  these,  after  having 
been  removed  from  the  double  husk,  are  prepared 
for  market. 

Bpiar  Pipes.  —  Briar  pipes  are  not  made  from 
the  wood  of  the  briar,  but  from  tlie  hruyere,  or 
white  Mediterranean  heather  root. 

Riee  Paper.  —  The  rice  plant  contributes  noth- 
ing but  the  name  to  the  manufacture  of  ''rice" 
cigarette-papers.  "  Rice  "  j^aper  is  made  only  from 
perfectly  new  trimmings  of  linen,  and  comes 
mostly  from  English  and  French  mills  in  Constan- 
tinople, Fumen  (in  Austria),  and  France.  Chinese 
rice  paper  is  made  from  thin  slices  of  the  pith  of 
a  tree  cane  that  grows  about  five  feet  high.  A 
sharp  knife  pares  the  pith  into  cylinders  of  uni- 
form thickness,  which  are  then  unrolled  and 
j)];essed  out  into  so-called  **rice"  paper. 

Egyptian  Cigarettes  and  Tobacco.  —  Since 
1890  the  cultivation  of  the  tobacco  plant  in  Eg3'i3t 
has  been  prohibited.  The  Cairenes  are  justly  cele- 
brated for  workmanship  and  the  curing  of  the  leaf, 
but  the  tobacco  they  import  comes  entirely  from 
Turkey. 

Deer  Forests  are  without  Trees.  —  A  deer 
"forest''  may  be  without  a  tree  or  even  a  shrub. 
The  origin  of  the  word  can  be  traced  through  the 
Italian /ores^a  or  old  French /ores^  to  the  Low  Latin 
forestum,  and  it  is  connected  with  the  classical  Latin 
foras  (out  doors),  from  foris  a  door,  from  which  we 
get  our  word  "foreign,"  meaning  "external."     A 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    PLANTS.        29 

forest  is,  in  fact,  a  piece  of  land  placed  out  of  cul- 
tivation ;  to  afforest  a  tract  is  to  place  it  so,  and  to 
disafforest  is  to  declare  that  it  may  again  be  culti- 
vated. It  was  for  hunting  deer  that  the  tracts  of 
land  were  so  placed ;  and  because  these  frequently 
contained  a  large  number  of  trees,  a  mistaken 
notion  grew  up  that  the  words  "forest"  and 
"  woods  "  were   synonymous. 

Why  Trees  Split.  —  The  splitting  of  forest  trees 
by  frost  is  ascribed  to  the  same  cause  as  the  burst- 
ing of  water-pipes ;  namely,  the  expansion  of  the 
saj)  turning  into  ice.  This  is  not  the  case.  The 
sjDlitting  is  due  to  the  contraction  of  the  wood  by 
frost,  similar,  but  in  a  less  degree,  to  what  happens 
when  the  wood  is  dried.  When  the  thaw  comes 
the  trees  expand  to  their  original  dimensions. 
"After  a  number  of  years'  measurements,"  accord- 
ing to  the  London  "Chronicle,"  "  Mr.  Clayton,  of 
Bradford,  finds  that  the  difference  between  the 
girths  in  October,  just  before  the  frost,  and  Febru- 
ary, when  the  thermometer  was  below  freezing, 
ranges  for  different  trees  from  two-sixteenths  to  six- 
sixteenths  of  an  inch." 

The  Movement  of  Sap.  —  There  is  no  truth  in 
the  belief  that  "  sap  goes  down  in  the  winter  and  up 
in  the  spring."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  water  in  trees 
increases  from  the  time  the  leaves  wither,  and  all 
through  the  winter  until  early  spring.  The  branches 
in  winter  are  almost  saturated  with  water.  The 
sap  does  not    "go   up"   until   the   warm  weather 


30  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

evaporates    the    stored-up    moisture    through    the 
already  expanded  foliage. 

The  Banyan.  —  A  remarkably  persistent  error 
is  that  banyan  branches  spread 

"  so  broad  and  long  that  in  the  ground 
The  bended  twigs  take  root,  and  daughters  grow 
About  the  mother  tree." 

When  Milton  wrote  these  words  about  this  wonder- 
ful fig-tree  he  had,  of  coiu'se,  read  Pliny's  account, 
and  then  copied  his  error  about  the  bended  twigs 
taking  root.  Tales  to  the  same  etfect  were  plenti- 
fully supplied  in  London  before  Milton's  time,  by 
servants  of  the  Honorable  East  Indian  Company 
returning  to  tell  of  the  strange  things  they  had 
seen.  The  facts  are  these  :  as  the  Ficus  hengalensis 
spreads  over  such  a  great  area  and  is  in  leaf  dur- 
ing the  hottest  season,  the  consequent  evaporation 
would  soon  exhaust  it  unless  it  were  replenished 
by  other  means  than  the  main  column ;  the  roots 
sent  down  for  this  purpose  do  not  defeat  their  own 
aim,  as  is  so  commonly  taught,  and  become  parent 
trees,  but  are  supports  for  the  tree's  enormously 
long  branches,  and  crutches  to  itself  in  its  old  age. 
Rosewood  Trees.  —  There  is  a  mistaken  im- 
pression that  rosewood  takes  its  name  from  its 
color.  Rosewood  is  not  red  or  yellow,  but  almost 
black.  Its  name  comes  from  the  fact  that  when 
first  cut  it  exhales  a  perfume  similar  to  that  of 
the  rose ;  and  although  the  dried  rosewood  of  com- 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    PLANTS.       31 

merce  retains  no  trace  of  this  early  perfume,  the 
name  lingers. 

Mummy  Wheat.  —  There  is  no  foundation  for 
the  belief  that  wheat  2,000  years  old  will  come  to 
life.  The  stories  of  wheat  found  inside  sarcophagi 
and  mummy  cases  germinating  after  thousands  of 
years  have  been  proved  unauthentic  times  out  of 
number  by  Hooker,  Carruthers,  Flinders-Petrie, 
Newberry,  and  every  other  botanist  and  antiquary 
of  any  eminence,  and  likewise  by  committees  of 
the  British  Association  and  the  United  States  De- 
partment of  Agriculture.  Wheat  seldom  j^reserves 
its  vitality  beyond  the  eighth  or  ninth  year.  In 
the  "Standard"  lately  appeared  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Newberry,  who  says  that  out  of  the  seeds  of  thirty 
species  of  plants  found  by  him  in  similar  situations 
not  one  sprouted.  His  latest  failure  was  with 
three  peach-stones  —  probably  of  Roman  date  — 
disinterred  from  a  tomb  at  Beni  Hasan,  in  Upper 
Egypt.  The  fact  is  the  seeds,  like  the  mummies, 
have  been  oxidized  to  the  centre.  At  the  South 
Kensington  Health  Exhibition  there  was  shown  a 
model  of  the  Roman  baths  uncovered  at  Bath,  and 
in  the  centre  stood  a  large  seed-pan  filled  with 
ferns,  with  a  label  attached  stating  that  they  were 
grown  from  seeds  (spores)  obtained  from  fern 
leaves  during  the  excavations,  and  found  so  many 
feet  under  the  Roman  ruins,  where  they  had  lain 
so  many  hundreds  of  years  —  and  the  public  be- 
lieved it ! 


32  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Ppimposes  and  other  Flowers.  —  Primroses 
when  planted  upside  down  sometimes  come  up  and 
display  a  different  color.  This  is  not  the  effect  of 
eccentric  planting,  for  flowers  of  a  different  color 
often  appear  on  the  wayside  primrose  when  it  is 
transferred  to  a  garden  in  the  ordinary  way.  The 
same  change  may  be  observed  in  the  color  of  other 
flowers,  and  depends  on  several  causes ;  the  nature 
of  the  soil  is  one.  A  well-known  instance  is  that 
of  the  hydrangea,  the  color  of  whose  flower  is 
changed  from  pink  to  blue  by  a  specially  prepared 
soil,  or  in  some  districts  by  the  natural  soil  of  the 
garden.  One  carnation  plant  will  produce  blooms 
of  several  different  colors. 

The  Aloe.  —  A  gardeners'  fable  makes  the  aloe 
live  a  century  before  it  flowers.  In  the  Scilly 
Islands  aloes  that  arrive  at  maturity  and  die  before 
a  fifth  of  this  time  may  be  seen  any  day.  Indeed, 
in  some  places  they  flower  and  then  die  even  in  the 
tenth  year. 

The  Lotus.  —  The  lotus,  the  sacred  plant  of  the 
Egyptians,  symbolizing  the  northern  part  of  their 
country  as  the  papyrus  did  the  southern,  did  not 
grow  in  the  Nile.  It  was  cultivated  in  ponds  and 
tanks,  and  in  the  sacred  lakes  attached  to  the 
temples.  The  only  places  where  it  is  still  found 
are  some  pools,  principally  in  the  Delta.  The 
annual  rise  and  fall  of  the  water  render  its  ex- 
istence in  the  stream  itself  all  but  impossible. 

Gutta-percha.  —  The  gum  called  gutta-percha 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    PLANTS.       33 

is  not  from  the  Latin  gutta,  a  drop,  but  is  a  bastard 
spelling  of  the  Malayan  name  gotah  pertcha ;  that 
is,  ''  gum  of  Sumatra,"  whence  it  was  originally 
obtained. 

Hawthorn. —Hawthorn  is  not  a  thorn  that 
bears  haws,  but  one  that  grows  in  the  haw  or  hedge. 

Hollyhocks  a  Sort  of  Hoax. —The  hollyhock 
has  nothing  to  do  etymologically  with  either  the 
holly  or  the  oak.  Hock  is  old  English  for  mallow, 
and  when  the  flower  was  introduced  from  the  Holy 
Land  itwas  given  its  name,  the  Holi-hoc  ;  it  is  some- 
times called  rose-mallow,  or  the  outre-mer  rose. 
It  is  a  native  of  China. 

Wormwood  not  a  Wood  for  Worms.— Profes- 
sor Skeat  shows  that  wormwood  is  not,  as  was  for- 
merly supposed,  compounded  of  two  Anglo-Saxon 
words  meaning  to  keep  off  maggots,  but  is  wer- 
mod,  meaning  mind-preserver. 

Gooseberries  not  for  Geese.  — The  delicious 
fruit,  so  prized  in  Scotland,  but  elsewhere  some- 
what despised  on  account  of  its  name,  has  no  asso- 
ciation with  the  goose  !  Its  name  may  be  from  the 
goss  or  gorse,  a  prickly  plant ;  but  more  likely  from 
gooseberry,  groiseberry,  allied  with  the  middle  high 
German  grus,  curling,  crisped. 


34  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MISTAKES   WE   MAKE   ABOUT   ANIMALS. 

"  Mad  Dog" ! "  —  A  rabid  dog  never  foams  at  the 
month.  A  fit,  usually  brought  on  by  over-exertion 
in  running,  will  sometimes  produce  this  effect ;  the 
remedy  should  be  cold  water  to  the  animal's  head. 
The  name  * '  hydrophobia  "  means  the  fear  of  water, 
and  the  belief  that  mad  dogs  dread  water  having 
become  general,  the  sight  of  a  dog  eagerly  lapping 
water  and  even  plunging  into  it  leads  people  to 
exclaim,  "  He  drinks!  There  is  no  danger."  Yet 
burning  thirst  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  rabies 
in  its  early  stages. 

Dog-days  and  Rabies.  —  "Dog-days"  have  no 
more  to  do  with  rabies  than  the  moon  has  to  do  with 
lunacy.  Dogs  are  liable  to  attacks  in  every  month 
of  the  year,  but  the  fewest  cases  occur  in  July 
and  August.  The  records  of  the  veterinary  schools 
of  Alfort,  Toulouse,  Paris,  London,  and  Lyons 
show  that  a  majority  of  cases  occur  in  the  wettest 
months.  In  April,  November,  and  December  the 
recorded  cases  are  double  and  triple  those  in  June, 
July,  and  August.  In  hot  countries  the  disease  is 
rare,  and  in  some  even  unknown. 

The  Bloodhound.  — The  bloodhound  is  not  nat- 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    ANIMALS.      35 

turally  cruel.  He  is  trained  to  scent  blood.  His 
mission  is  to  track,  not  to  injure.  Fugitives  are 
rarely,  if  ever,  torn  or  injured  b}'  him  when  he 
brings  them  to  bay. 

The  Bull-dog  not  so  Ugly  as  he  is  Ugly.  —  The 
bull-dog  is  a  living  contradiction  to  the  assertion 
that  character  can  be  told  by  the  face.  He  is  not 
savage,  stupid,  or  treacherous.  There  is  no  authen- 
tic instance  of  one  attacking  a  man  unprovoked. 
His  ugliness  lies  in  his  phiz  and  not  in  his  temper, 
and  it  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  lower  canine 
teeth  are  in  front  of  the  upper  canine  teeth. 

Cat's  Eyes  are  not  Phosphorescent.  —A  cat's 
eyes  do  not  shine  in  the  dark  ;  that  is  to  say,  in  the 
total  absence  of  light.  A  body  must  be  luminous 
to  shine  in  darkness,  and  no  creature  possesses 
light-giving  eyes.  Pussy's  eyes  appear  to  be  bright 
in  the  dark  because  the  widely  distended  pupil 
catches  what  light  there  is,  thus  collecting  rays  which 
are  invisible  to  us ;  so  her  eyes  seem  to  shine  with 
a  light  of  their  own. 

The  King  of  Beasts  a  Coward,  — The  lion  has 
been  accredited  with  immense  strength,  courage, 
and  almost  nobility  of  character.  African  travel- 
lers, such  as  Livingstone,  Baker,  and  Selous,  show 
that  these  attributes  are  fictitious.  The  so-called 
king  of  beasts  is  a  cowardly,  skulking  brute,  which 
would  much  rather  run  away  than  fight,  unless  it 
can  take  its  enemy  unaware,  or  is  rendered  des- 
perate by  hunger.     Its  nature  is  to  be  sleepy  all  day. 


36  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

and  to  dislike  exertion  in  broad  daylight,  especially 
after  a  night's  gorging  on  an  antelope. 

The  lion  has  also  a  worldwide  fame  for  the  pos- 
session of  a  cavernous  mouth. 

"  Van  Amburgh  is  the  man 
Who  goes  to  all  the  shows ; 
He  puts  his  head  in  the  lion's  mouth 
And  tells  you  what  he  knows." 

Thus  runs  the  poem,  but  no  lion  or  tiger  ever  had 
a  mouth  big  enough  to  admit  the  human  head. 

In  strength  it  is  inferior  to  other  members  of  its 
family.  Its  forepaws  have  only  sixty-nine  per 
cent,  and  its  hind  legs  only  sixty-five  per  cent. 
respectively  of  the  muscular  power  possessed  by 
those  of  the  tiger. 

Bison.— "Buffalo  Bill"  and  his  companions 
are  said  to  have  killed  4,280  "  buffaloes  "  in  eighteen 
months,  that  the  laborers  on  the  Kansas  Pacific 
Railway  might  be  provided  with  meat.  But  from  a 
naturalist's  stan'dpoint,  they  did  nothing  of  the 
kind:  all  their  "buffaloes"  were  bison.  The  true 
buffalo  is  found  only  in  the  Old  World  ;  it  is  domes- 
ticated generally  in  India  and  Southern  Asia,  whence 
it  was  introduced  into  Egypt  and  Southern  Europe. 
In  the  wild  state  it  inhabits  the  Indian  jungles.  The 
wild  and  fiercer  Cape  buffalo  is  an  analogous  spe- 
cies. 

The  name  Aurochs  (Latin  Urus)  is  sometimes 
incorrectly  applied  to  the  bison.     The  Aurochs  was 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    ANIMALS.       37 

a  gigantic  prehistoric  animal  from  which  it  is  com- 
monly believed  that  the  wild  Chillingham  cattle, 
though  much  inferior  in  size,  are  descended,  prob- 
ably after  domestication  and  interbreeding.  A  few 
specimens  of  the  Aurochs  are  still  preserved  in 
Lithuania  and  the  Caucasus.  A  few  specimens  of 
the  American  bison  are  also  to  be  found  in  the 
Yellowstone  Park  and  in  one  or  two  private  pre- 
serves. 

How  a  Bull  charges.  —  In  almost  every  draw- 
ing in  which  a  cow,  bison,  or  buffalo  is  seen  charg- 
ing  a  man,  the  animal  is  represented  with  its  horns 
lowered,  however  far  away  it  may  be  from  the 
intended  victim.  This  horned  animals  never  do 
until  they  are  at  close  quarters,  for  were  they  to  do 
so  their  sight  would  not  aid  them,  and  their  enemy 
would  probably  escape. 

The  Ship  of  the  Desert.  — The  camel  is  usually 
cited  as  the  most  notable  example  of  ability  to 
endure  thirst.  Sir  C.  Rivers  Wilson  says  that  none 
of  the  camels  that  had  been  without  water  from  six 
to  seven  days  on  the  march  to  Abu  Klea  survived, 
and  that  to  keep  them  in  good  condition  it  is  neces- 
sary to  water  them  at  least  every  second  day. 
There  is  no  truth  in  the  statement  that  the  camel 
carries  a  water  reservoir  in  its  stomach,  or  that  the 
Bedouins,  if  they  are  near  death  from  thirst,  kill 
the  camel  and  drink  the  water  stored  in  the  stom- 
ach.    In  the  desert  these  fables  are  unknown. 

Mice  and  Marmots.  —  If  one  wants  a  type  of 


38  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

abstinence  from  water  the  common  mouse  may  be 
chosen.  They  have  been  known  to  live  in  a  warm 
room  for  three  and  a  half  months  without  having 
any  drink,  and,  while  eating  heartily  of  dry  maize 
and  grass  seeds,  to  seem  quite  equal  to  prolonging 
their  water-fast  for  a  month  or  two  more.  The 
seals  in  Bering  Sea  go  without  food  or  water  for 
three  or  four  months,  subsisting  on  their  own  fat ; 
and  bears,  while  hibernating,  of  course  neither  eat 
nor  drink.  It  was  at  one  time  supposed  that  the 
prairie  dog  in  the  Western  deserts  went  long  with- 
out water,  but  it  has  been  recently  discovered  that 
the  intelligent  little  creatures  dig  wells  so  deep  that 
they  reach  water  level.  The  prairie  dog,  though  it 
barks,  is  not  a  dog,  but  a  rodent ;  belonging  to  the 
same  family  as  the  woodchuck. 

It  may  be  well  here  to  add  that  the  "  shrew- 
mouse  "  is  not  a  mouse  or  akin  to  a  mouse.  Its  name 
comes  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  scredwa  from  the  verb 
scearfa,  to  gnaw.  Neither  does  it  in  biting  cattle 
cause  an 3^  peculiar  malady.  In  the  same  iconoclas- 
tic spirit  we  may  dispel  any  lingering  notion  that  a 
guinea-pig  is  a  pig,  or  that  it  comes  from  Guinea. 
It  is  a  rodent,  and  its  home  is  South  America. 

The  Monkey  and  the  Stick.  — Why  is  the 
ourang-outang  represented  pictorially  with  a  stick  ? 
What  would  he  do  with  it  in  the  thick  undergrowth 
of  his  troj^ical  home,  and  where  would  he  put  it 
while  climbing  the  branches  overhead  ?  The  ourang 
cannot  stand  upright  or  turn   round  without  the 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    ANIMALS.       39 

free  support  of  both  arms,  and  he  seldom  descends 
to  the  ground,  but  ^Dasses  from  tree  to  tree,  often  at 
great  altitudes,  walking  along  the  larger  limb  of 
one  till  he  reaches  the  boughs  of  the  next,  from 
which  he  swings  to  another,  and  so  jDroceeds,  mile 
after  mile,  over  a  continuous  interwoven  highway. 

Coneys  are  not  Rabbits.  —The  coney  of  Script- 
ure is  not  our  "  bunny."  Preachers  are  sometimes 
guilty  of  confounding  the  two.  The  animal  men- 
tioned in  Psalm  civ.  is  supposed  to  be  the  daman, 
the  Syrian  hyrax,  a  small-hoofed  mammal  with 
rhinoceros-like  molars.  Its  cousins  at  the  Cape 
are  miscalled  rock-badgers. 

The  Sloth  not  Slothful.  —  The  "sloth"  is  an 
expert  climber,  full  of  life,  and  traverses  the 
branches  of  forest  trees  at  a  speed  which  is  anything 
but  slothful.  He  does  not  descend  to  the  ground, 
for  his  long  limbs  and  curved  claw^s  are  not  adapted 
for  standing.  The  sloth  on  the  ground  will  not  take 
more  than  thirty  steps  a  day,  and  will  not  go  a  mile 
in  a  month.  His  native  name  is  Ai.  He  used  to  be 
considered  imperfect  and  deformed. 

Names  that  are  Fup-f etched.  —Ermine  is  the 
symbol  of  justice,  and  its  whiteness  makes  it  a 
choice  fur  for  maidens  to  w^ear  ;  but  the  "  ermine"  is 
merely  the  reddish-brown  stoat  in  its  winter  dress. 
Like  so  many  animals  which  inhabit  northern  lati- 
tudes, the  stoat  changes  in  the  winter  to  an  almost 
complete  white ;  the  tail  alone  remains  black. 

The  polar  bear,   we   are   continually  told,    "  is 


40  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

always  white  like  the  snow."  But  as  he  grows  old 
he  grows  brown,  and  the  whale  fishers  nickname 
him  "  Old  Brownie." 

Frauds  in  Fur.  —  Many  furs  bearing  high- 
sounding  names  are  really  derived  from  humble 
creatures.  Mink  goes  under  the  name  of  American 
sable.  Skunk  is  "black  martin "  till  it  gets  out; 
then  its  odor  tells  its  origin.  The  muskrat  or 
"  musquash  "  masquerades  as  brook  otter.  The 
coney,  subjected  to  an  electric  process  to  remove  its 
long  hairs,  becomes  a  French  seal ;  and  so  peoi^le 
deceive  themselves. 

The  Beaver.  —  The  beaver,  it  is  asserted,  always 
cuts  the  tree  so  that  it  may  fall  toward  the  water. 
Trees  growing  near  the  water  lean  toward  a  stream 
or  pond,  and  the  heaviest  branches  grow  over 
where  light  and  space  are  greatest;  the  larger 
number  of  those  cut  bj^the  beavers  would  naturally 
fall  in  that  direction ;  moreover  the  animals  coming 
up  out  of  the  water  would  first  gnaw  on  that  side. 

Beavers  do  not  use  their  tails  as  a  trowel,  but  only 
to  propel  them  through  the  water  and  to  slap  down 
the  mud  and  soft  earth.  The  beaver  selects  the 
trees  above  his  dam ;  and  when  the  water  is  swift 
builds  it  diagonally.  He  carries  his  building 
materials  between  his  forepaws  and  chin,  arranges 
them  with  his  forepaws,  and  slaps  with  his  flat  tail. 
They  do  not  drive  in  piles. 

Sealskin  that  is  not  Sealskin.— The  commonly 
known  "  sealskin"  is  not  furnished  by  the  true  seal, 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    ANIMALS.       41 

whose  skin  is  almost  useless  except  when  used  as 
an  ornamental  mat  or  stiff  rug.  It  is  the  sea-lions 
and  bears,  the  eared  seals,  Otaria,  whose  skins  are 
so  highly  valued  because  so  soft  and  warm.  The 
skins  on  the  living  animals  have  not,  as  is  often  sup- 
posed, the  same  downy  appearance  as  they  have 
when  they  are  ready  for  clothing,  being  covered 
with  long,  coarse,  deep-rooted  hairs,  which  drop 
out  when  dressed  by  the  furrier,  and  leave  the  soft, 
woolly  hair  uninjured. 

Seals  ape  not  flayed  Alive.  — A  diatribe  headed 
*'  Fashion  and  Sealskin  "  in  an  evening  paper  says : 
♦'  Surely  fifty  or  a  hundred  guineas  could  not  pos- 
sibly be  better  spent  than  purchasing  every  now 
and  then  a  skin  that  has  been  torn  from  the  living 
animal',  most  suitable  apparel  for  the  'gentle' 
sex  !  "  Says  another  serious  writer  of  fiction  in  one 
of  the  weeklies:  "The  sealskin  jacket  represents 
some  half-dozen  dams  who  have  been  skinned 
alive,  while  their  little  ones  have  been  left  to  starve 
in  all  the  slow  agonies  of  starvation."  The  cruelty 
exists  in  the  writer's  imagination.  Mother  seals, 
technically  called  cows,  are  not  slaughtered,  but 
only  the  "bachelors"  which  are  about  four  years 
old  and  have  no  little  ones.  What  really  takes  place 
happens  hourly  in  every  slaughter-house  in  the 
world.  After  the  skins  of  cattle  are  removed,  the 
flesh  quivers  for  some  time.  The  reports  of  the 
United  States  Fish  Commission  describe  the  pro- 
cess:  "At  a  given  signal   down   comes  the  club. 


42  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

and  the  seal  is  stunned  and  motionless ;  their  skulls, 
being  very  thin,  are  easily  fractured.  This  opera- 
tion being  over,  the  men  seize  the  prostrate  seals 
by  the  hind  flippers,  and  range  them  in  rows.  Then 
each  sealer  takes  his  knife  and  drives  it  into  the 
heart,  and  any  slight  movement  of  the  animal 
soon  ceases.     Then  follows  the  skinning.'" 

It  would  be  a  dangerous  operation  for  one  man, 
and  much  too  expensive  to  employ  several,  to  flay  a 
live  seal,  often  eight  feet  in  length,  and  with  teeth 
surpassing  those  of  the  largest  dog. 

Whales  do  not  spout  Water.  —  The  whale  is 
not  a  fish ;  it  difi'ers  from  its  fishy  neighbors  in 
breathing,  as  man  does,  by  lungs ;  in  having  warm 
blood  and  no  scales ;  in  having  a  four-chambered 
heart  (fishes  have  two  chambers)  ;  and  particu- 
larly in  the  fact  that  its  young  are  born  alive 
and  nourished  with  milk.  Nor  do  they  spout  water 
as  they  are  always  represented  doing  in  pictures, 
wherein  the  column  always  takes  the  form  of  a  glo- 
rious fountain.  They  breathe  out  the  heated  air  of 
the  lungs,  and  as  they  begin  to  do  so  just  before 
they  approach  the  surface,  the  eff'ort  results  in  the 
water  just  above  the  nostrils  on  the  top  of  the  head 
being  carried  up  into  the  air  in  the  form  of  a  jet; 
while  the  heated  breath  being  condensed  by  sudden 
exposure  to  the  outer  cold  appears  in  the  form  of 
fine  spray  or  vapor.  The  whale's  nostrils  are 
guarded  by  valvular  structures  Avhich  close  when 
under  water,  and  prevent  it  from  penetrating. 


MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    ABOUT    ANIMALS.       43 

Flying-fish  and  Squirrels.  —  Flying-fish  have 
no  wings,  but  long  extended  fins,  used  simply  to 
sustain  them  like  a  parachute.  Some  persons 
imagine  that  they  flap  these  to  lengthen  their  leaps 
through  the  air.  This  is  wrong.  Their  fins  are 
motionless  from  the  time  they  leap  from  the  sea 
till  they  drop  into  it  again.  The  leaping  of  the 
flying-squirrel,  which  has  the  skin  of  the  sides  very 
much  extended  between  the  fore  and  hind  legs,  is 
analogous. 

Small  Fry. —The  sardine,  whitebait,  and  mor- 
ris are  not  distinct  species.  The  sardine  develops 
into  pilchard,  the  whitebait  is  the  young  of  the 
herring  and  the  sprat,  and  the  mysterious  morris, 
only  the  conger  in  another  stage  of  life. 

Are  Zebras  Untamable? — The  striped  zebra, 
which  makes  such  a  picturesque  part  of  a  circus,  is 
generally  supposed  to  be  untamable.  But  Baron 
Walter  Rothschild,  of  London,  after  long  experi- 
ments succeeded  in  getting  together  a  team  of  four, 
which  he  drives  without  trouble. 


44  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


CHAPTER  V. 

BIRDS   AND   INSECTS. 

Birds  with  Wrong  Names.  —  The  phiral  of 
mouse  is  mice.  Analogy  misled  our  English  an- 
cestors to  imagine  that  the  singular  of  grice  (th'e 
distinctively  gray  bird)  must  be  grouse!  Bryant 
thus  speaks,  in  *'  The  Old  Man's  Counsel,"  of  the 
different  names  by  which  the  grouse  is  known  in 
this  country : 

**  I  listened,  and  from  midst  the  depth  of  woods 

Heard  the  love-signal  of  the  groixse,  that  wears 

A  sable  ruff  around  his  mottled  neck  ; 

Partridge  they  call  him  by  our  Northern  streams, 

And  pheasant  by  the  Delaware.    He  beat 

'Gainst  his  barred  sides  his  speckled  wings,  and  made 

A  sound  like  distant  thunder." 

In  the  same  way 'the  melodious  bobolink  of  our 
Northern  pastures,  when  it  emigrates  to  the  South, 
grows  fat,  and  is  highly  estimated  by  epicures 
under  the  name  of  the  reed-bird.  Still  farther 
South  he  is  known  as  the  rice-bird,  and  in  Jamaica 
as  the  butter-bird.  This  contains  a  moral.  The 
poet  who  gi'ows  fat  and  prosperous  loses  his  song 
and  is  doomed. 


BIRDS    AND    INSECTS.  45 

The  bird  called  in  England  the  yellow  "ham- 
mer "  is  the  yellow-bimting  ;  but  it  should  properly 
be  the  yellow-ammer,  like  the  German  ammer,  a 
bunting.  In  some  parts  of  tlie  United  States  the 
name  is  applied  to  the  flicker  or  golden-winged 
woodpecker.  The  hedge-sparrow  is  not  a  real 
sparrow.  Its  correct  name  is  hedge  accentor,  and 
it  is  closely  related  to  the  robins  and  redstarts.  Dr. 
Bowdler-Sharpe,  in  his  "  Natural  History  Museum," 
says,  "In  all  other  resjDects,  except  that  of  the 
similarity  of  coloring  of  the  upper  surface,  it  is 
quite  diflferent  from  the  sparrow,  and  as  regards 
voice,  nesting  habits,  color  of  eggs,  etc.,  it  has 
nothing  in  common  with  the  latter  bird."  The 
so-called  muscovy  duck  has  no  claim  on  Russia; 
it  is  only  the  musk  duck  with  a  longer  name. 
NuttalPs  "  Ornithology"  says  :  "  The  term  muscovy 
is  wholly  misapplied,  since  it  is  an  exclusive  native 
of  the  warmer  and  tropical  parts  of  America  and 
its  islands."  The  night-jar  is  often  called  the 
*'  goat-sucker,"  from  the  notion  formerly  in  vogue 
and  not  even  yet  quite  extinct,  that  he  had  the 
habit  of  sucking  the  teats  of  wild  goats,  cows, 
and  sheep.  At  evening  he  hovers  close  by  the 
udders  of  cattle  and  goats  as  they  lie  stretched 
in  the  meadows ;  but  he  is  not  milking  them  — : 
he  comes  as  a  friend.  The  night-jar  snaps  up 
the  flies  that  annoy  the  animals,  while  the  cattle 
never  whisk  their  tails  so  long  as  the  bird  attends 
them. 


46  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

The  Sparrow  of  the  Bible.— 

"Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  farthing?" — Matt,  x., 
29. 

"  I  am  as  a  sparrow  alone  upon  the  house-top." —  Psalm 
Cii.,  7. 

The  bird  here  mentioned  is  not  the  common 
English  sjiarrow,  which  is  unknown  in  the  Holy- 
Land,  though  tree-sparrows  are  abundant.  The 
psalmist  probably  alluded  to  a  species  of  thrush 
frequently  seen  perched  on  the  villagers'  houses  in 
Judea.  It  is  a  bird  usually  alone,  and  rarely  more 
than  a  pair  are  seen  together.  In  the  forty  allu- 
sions in  the  Old  Testament  all  but  two  are  rendered 
indiiferently  "  bird  "  or  "fowl." 

Birds  lose  their  Way.  —  Many  imagine  that 
the  annual  arrival  of  our  migratory  birds  is  because 
they  "  know  their  way  by  inherited  impulse  ;  "  that 
they  come  and  go  "with  certainty."  If  they  read 
Dixon's  "The  Migration  of  Birds,"  they  will  find 
that  birds  blunder  and  lose  their  way ;  that  they 
gradually  learn  the  various  landmarks  on  the 
road ;  that  they  almost  inv^ariably  lose  their  way  in 
darkness  or  fog;  that,  in  fact,  "the  mysterious 
sense  of  direction "  is  a  myth.  It  is  now  the 
theory  that  birds  go  in  waves.  Our  robins,  for 
instance,  may  migrate  to  Florida ;  while  those  from 
Labrador  or  farther  north  winter  here,  giving  rise 
to  the  notion  that  some  of  our  robins  stay  with  us 
all  the  year  round. 

Do  Birds  die  of  Cold?  —  It  was  reported  in  the 


BIRDS    AND    INSECTS.  47 

newspapers  that  after  the  great  frost  that  destroyed 
so  many  orange  plantations  in  the  South  in  1895  the 
coast  was  lined  with  the  bodies  of  bluebirds  and 
other  birds  that  had  perished  of  the  cold.  On  Feb. 
16, 1895,  the  London  "  Echo  "  said  :  "  Vast  numbers 
of  song  birds  have  fallen  a  prey  to  the  cold.''''  But 
a  writer  in  the  February  number  of  the  *'  Cornhill" 
says:  "I  have  never  known  a  bird  in  this  country 
or  in  North  America  during  the  terribly  severe 
winter  of  1875-76  die  of  cold,  but  I  have  seen 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  birds  dying  and  dead  of 
starvation.  .  .  .  No  wind  direct  from  the  North 
pole,  over  trackless  and  snow-mantled  Greenland 
or  Iceland,  ever  ruffled  the  equanimity  of  a  pigeon 
on  the  farthest  point  of  Scotland  if  it  were  not 
pinched  for  food  and  water. 

'*  I  have  watched  my  pigeons  during  biting  hurri- 
canes, perched  on  the  highest  ridge  of  their  house, 
preening  their  feathers,  and  literally  cooing  in  the 
blast  with  delight.  Nor  do  pigeons,  like  human 
beino^s,  g^row  more  sensitive  to  cold  as  thev  advance 
in  years'. 

"  Birds,  I  believe,  never  absolutely  die  of  cold. 
I  question  if  they  ever  feel  it  as  man  does,  and  I 
attribute  their  invulnerability  to  the  closeness  and 
warmth  of  their  feathery  covering,  the  peculiar 
texture  of  the  skin  of  their  feet  and  legs,  the  fatty 
plumpness  of  their  flesh,  the  warmth  and  richness 
of  their  blood,  and  other  purely  physiological  char- 
acteristics." 


48  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Mr.  Thomson,  the  head  keeper  of  the  Zoological 
Society's  Gardens,  is  reported  as  saying  that  no 
birds  have  died  from  cold  alone  at  the  Zoo,  even 
dm'ing  the  terribly  severe  winter  of  '94  and  '95,  and 
he  instances  the  fact  that  many  birds,  as  the  ivory 
gull,  spend  not  only  the  summer,  but  the  entire 
winter,  within  the  arctic  circle. 

How  Birds  sleep.  —  Most  children  believe  that 
birds  sleep  with  their  heads  under  their  wings.  The 
well-known  nursery  rhyme  says  : 

"  The  north  wind  doth  blow, 

And  we  shall  have  snow  ; 
What  will  the  robin  do  then,  poor  thing  ? 

He'll  go  to  the  barn 

And  keep  himself  warm. 
And  put  his  head  under  his  wing,  poor  thing." 

R.  H.  Dana  says,  in  "Two  Years  before  the 
Mast": 

"  One  of  the  finest  sights  that  I  have  ever  seen 
was  an  albatross  asleep  upon  the  water,  during  a 
calm  off  Cape  Horn,  when  a  heavy  sea  was  run- 
ning. There  being  no  breeze,  the  surface  of  the 
water  was  unbroken,  but  a  long  heavy  swell  was 
running,  and  we  saw  the  fellow,  all  white,  directly 
ahead  of  us,  asleep  upon  the  waves,  with  his  head 
under  his  wing." 

Literature  is  full  of  allusions  to  birds  sleeping  in 
that  way,  and  illustrations  in  many  books  give  the 
same  impression.     Indeed,  a  casual   glance   at  a 


BIRDS    AND    INSECTS.  49 

sleeping  bird  appears  to  confirm  it,  but  no  bird  in 
tlie  world  sleeps  in  that  way.  ]\Iost  birds  turn 
their  heads  round  and  lay  them  along  their  backs, 
nestling  them  well  down  into  their  feathers,  so  that 
they  are  almost,  if  not  quite,  concealed.  The  truth 
of  this  assertion  is  confirmed  by  the  famous  author- 
ity on  bird  structure.  Dr.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  and  also 
the  late  Mr.  Clarence  Bartlett,  by  whom  the  habits 
of  hundreds  of  birds  have  been  personally  noted, 
night  and  day,  at  the  London  Zoo. 

The  Eagle. —This  bird  does  not  fly  downward 
beak  first ;  it  never  does  this  except  in  pictures : 
it  always  comes  down  feet  first.  Mackerel  gulls 
and  other  divers  plunge  head  first  into  the  water, 
making  scarcely  any  splash. 

The  Ibis  that  is  not  Sacred.  —  The  scarlet  ibis 
is  not  the  sacred  ibis.  The  bird  that  the  Egyptians 
worshipped  is  black  and  white. 

The  Owl's  Toes.  —  Illustrations  in  most  non- 
technical books  treating  of  owls  always  show  three 
toes  directed  forward ;  but  the  owl  perches  with 
only  two  toes  visible,  except  occasionally  when  on 
a  wide  surface,  and  then  the  fourth  toe,  which  is 
reversible,  may  be  brought  half-way  toward  the 
front  if  the  bird   so  will. 

The  Nightingale.  —  It  is  a  delusion  to  suppose 
that  the  song  of  this  bird  is  heard  only  by  night, 
for  though  it  usually  sings  after  sunset,  it  may  be 
sometimes  heard  in  full  song  throughout  the  day. 
One  variety  of  nightingale  sings  in  the  day  only. 


50  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Truly  the  name,  from  nihtegaJe,  indicates  a  bird 
that  sings  by  night.  Another  common  mistake  is 
that  he  modestly  shuns  the  haunts  of  men.  He  is 
often  heard  singing  unabashed  within  a  few  yards 
of  a  noisy  road,  and  with  people  watching  him. 

The  Turkey  not  fpom  Turkey.  —  Johnson's 
Dictionary  defines  turkey  as  '*  a  large  domestic 
fowl  supposed  to  be  brought  from  Turkey."' 

The  Spaniards  found  them  in  immense  flocks, 
and  introduced  them  into  Europe  after  the  conquest 
of  Mexico  in  1518.  It  is  supposed  that  the  Portu- 
guese, who  called  them  peru,  not  pavo,  a  peacock, 
imported  them  from  Spain  to  Bombay,  whence  they 
came  to  Italy  and  were  called  in  Italian  and  French 
"  Indian  fowl."  And  it  is  believed  that  they  were 
introduced  into  England  and  Germany  from  Con- 
stantinople. Shakespeare  and  Bacon  both  mention 
the  turkey-cock. 

Ostriches  and  their  Feathers.  —  It  is  often 
asserted  that  the  removal  of  feathers  from  the 
ostrich  is  a  painful  operation,  because  they  are 
pulled  out.  This  is  not  true.  The  universal  prac- 
tice during  the  last  twenty  years  is  to  cut  the 
feather  about  two  inches  above  the  socket.  The 
stumps  are  then  allowed  to  remain  in  the  bird  for 
two  months,  by  which  time  they  become  loose  and 
are  painlessly  withdrawn.  The  story  that  the 
ostrich  hides  its  head  in  the  sand  when  pursued, 
thinking  that  no  one  can  see  it  as  it  cannot  see 
itself,  has  no  basis  in  fact. 


BIRDS    AND    INSECTS.  51 

The  Flamingo.  —  The  "  Boys'  Own  Natural 
History,"  by  Wood,  published  in  1897,  says:  "  The 
nest  of  the  flamingo  is  a  tall,  conical  structure  of 
mud.  .  .  .  When  the  bird  sits  on  the  nest  her 
feet  rest  on  the  ground,  or  hang  into  the  water." 
It  is  generally  depicted  sitting  a  cheval,  with  one 
long:  \qo-  hano-ino;  down  each  side  of  a  high  cone- 
shaped  nest.  But  in  real  life  its  nest  is  nothing 
more  than  a  low  pile  of  weeds  and  leaves  cemented 
with  marl  in  shallow  water,  and  the  bird  sits  on  its 
eggs  like  any  other  bird,  and  manages  to  fold 
its  legs  under  itself.  The  name  is  derived  from  its 
color,  not  because  it  is  the  Flemish  bird,  as  some 
suppose. 

Hawks  and  Blackbirds.  —  Farmers  kill  hawks 
and  blackbirds  as  marauders.  The  Department  of 
Agriculture  has  shown  conclusively  that  out  of 
seventy-three  species  of  hawks  and  owls  in  the 
United  States  only  Ave  were  injurious  to  vegetation. 
They  feed  mainly  on  mice  and  noxious  insects. 

The  chicken-hawk  or  red-tailed  hawk  rarely  car- 
ries off"  a  chicken.  For  every  chicken  it  destroys 
it  is  estimated  to  eat  fifty  mice,  and  from  a  thousand 
to  two  thousand  grasshoppers.  Yet  the  legislatures 
of  our  States  often  off'er  bounties  for  hawk  scalps, 
and  thus  directly  pay  for  the  destruction  of  other 
birds  no  less  valuable.  By  the  way,  the  common 
contemptuous  expression  "he  does  not  know  a 
hawk  from  a  handsaw  "  (see  "Hamlet"  II.,  2)  is 
shown  by  Mr.  Skeat  to  be  a  curious  misappropri- 


52  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

ation  of  terms :  handsaw  should  be  hernshaw,  a 
young  heron.  But  the  word  hawker  has  nothing 
to  do  with  hawks ;  it  comes  from  the  old  English 
huck,  to  peddle  ;  huckster. 

Moths.  —  The  idea  that  moths  eat  holes  iu  our 
curtains  and  clothes  is  wrong.  They  eat  nothing, 
and  the  mischief  attributed  to  them  is  done  after 
they  are  dead,  their  death  happening  as  soon  as 
they  have  laid  their  eggs.  And  they  are  not  averse 
to  laying  them  in  camphor  or  lavender  bags,  cedar 
closets,  or  where  the  ill-smelling  moth  ball  pervades 
the  air.  To  the  maggots  from  these  eggs  should  be 
attached  the  blame  for  the  actual  devastation. 

The  Lady-bird.  —  The  lady-bird  is  not  a  bird, 
but  a  beetle.  The  dictionary  states  that  it  feeds  on 
plant  lice.  This  is  a  mistake.  Its  grub,  which 
makes  its  appearance  some  four  or  five  weeks  after 
the  lady-bird  has  settled  on  a  plant,  does  all  the 
feeding.  It  resembles  a  tiny  crocodile  both  in  vo- 
racity and  shape,  and  will  suck  dry  hundreds  of 
"  blight"  spots  in  a  few  hours. 

The  House-fly.  —  The  house-fly  has  no  suckers 
in  its  feet,  as  some  imagine,  but  is  j^rovided  wath 
moist,  hairy  pads  which  can  stick  to  any  smooth  sur- 
face. For  rough  surfaces  each  foot  is  provided 
with  a  pair  of  hooks. 

Blunders  about  Bees.  — In  Shakespeare's  sec- 
ond play  of  "Henry  IV.,"  IV.,  4,  the  king  says: 
"  Like  the  bee  .  .  .  our  thighs  packed  with  wax, 
our  mouths  with  honey."     But  bees  carry  their  wax 


BIRDS    AND    INSECTS.  53 

in  their  *' tails"  and  honey  in  their  stomachs. 
Elsewhere  we  are  told  that  when  "the  old  bees 
die,  the  young  possess  their  hive."  But  there  are 
no  successive  generations  of  bees ;  they  are  all  the 
offspring  of  the  same  mother,  and  possess  the  hive 
by  mutual  arrangement,  and  not  by  heredity ;  when 
it  gets  too  full  the  superfluous  bees  go  off  with  a 
queen  bee  to  the  "colonies,"  leaving  the  old  folks 
at  home,  as  it  were.  Another  error  regarding  the 
bee  is  that  it  uses  its  sting  only  to  avenge  an  injury 
or  in  self-defence.  On  the  contrary,  the  acid  serves 
as  a  preservation  of  the  honey.  Not  only  is  it  used 
in  minute  f)ortions  throughout  the  entire  process  of 
manufacture,  but  it  is  also  employed,  and  much 
more  freely,  to  complete  the  cells,  and  cover  them 
with  the  tiny  cap.  Humble  bees  are  not  so  called 
because  they  are  humble  or  inferior  to  the  honey 
bee,  but  because  they  hum ! 

Locusts  are  Good  to  Eat.  —John  the  Baptist's 
food  was  locusts  and  wild  honey.  The  Greek  word 
is  akris,  plural  akrides,  and  it  does  not  signify  the 
bean-pods  of  the  locust-tree  as  some  ignorant  com- 
mentators affirm,  but  the  insect.  It  has  been  eaten 
in  many  places  in  Asia  and  Africa  from  early  times. 
The  Bedouins  string  them  together,  and  eat  them 
on  their  journeys  with  unleavened  cake  and  butter. 
Bushmen  esteem  them  their  greatest  luxury.  Dr. 
Livingstone  speaks  highly  of  the  same  kind  of  food, 
declaring  it  to  be  superior  to  shrimps,  and  Mr.  J. 
T.  Bent,  in  "The  Ruined  Cities  of  Mashonaland," 


54  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

1895,  says  he  found  Mashonas  and  Matabele  busily 
engaged  in  cooking  locusts.  Honey  is  eaten  with 
locusts  whenever  it  can  be  obtained.  On  the  other 
hand,  honey  would  be  quite  unnecessary  with  the 
locust-bean,  which  is  itself  sufficiently  sweet.  It  is 
worthy  of  note  that  the  locust  and  grasshopper  were 
not  prohibited  to  the  Jews  (see  Leviticus  xi.,  22). 

Why  the  Scorpion  stings  Itself. —  It  is  not 
true  that  scorpions,  unable  to  escajDe  from  fire, 
deliberately  commit  suicide  by  stinging  themselves. 
Experiments  show  that  the  scorpion's  poison  has 
no  eftect  on  itself,  and  that  when  placed  in  a  test- 
tube,  so  that  the  sting  cannot  be  used,  and  then 
subjected  to  a  moderate  heat  (50  deg.  C.)  it  quickly 
dies.  When  the  solar  rays  are  directed  upon  it  by 
a  lens,  it  raises  its  tail  and  tries  to  strike  the  cause 
of  irritation,  and  when  it  dies  it  is  alleged  to  have 
committed  suicide ;  but  it  has  really  been  killed  by 
the  heat  to  which  it  was  exposed.  Scorpions  have 
been  seen  to  sting  themselves  in  the  case  of  local 
irritation,  if,  for  instance,  acids,  mustard,  or  the 
like  be  applied.  Not  succeeding  in  ridding  itself 
of  the  annoyance  by  ordinary  means,  the  creature 
directs  its  sting  on  the  point  afflicted,  with  the 
intention,  not  of  killing  itself,  but  rather  of  destroy- 
ing the  cause  of  pain  ;  in  this  case  it  does  not  die. 

The  Nautilus  does  not  sail.— 

**  This  is  the  ship  of  pearl,  which,  poets  feign, 
Sails  the  unshadowed  main," 

says  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes.     Pope  advises : 


BIRDS    AND    INSECTS.  55 

"  Learn  of  the  little  nautilus  to  sail, 

Spread  the  thin  oar  and  catch  the  driving  gale." 

Webster^s  dictionary  says  it  is  "a  kind  of  shell- 
fish furnished  with  a  membrane  that  [which]  serves 
it  as  a  sail."  Thus  is  perpetuated  the  fable  that  the 
nautilus  floats  on  the  surface  of  the  sea  with  concave 
side  of  its  shell  upward,  and  that  it  holds  out  some 
of  its  arms  after  the  manner  of  sails  to  catch  the 
breeze,  and  directs  its  course  with  the  remainder  by 
using  them  as  oars.  Aristotle  believed  this,  and  it 
has  been  a  favorite  simile  for  poets  ever  since;  but 
naturalists  know  that  the  hard-shelled  nautilus  and 
the  thin-shelled  argonaut  float  through,  not  on,  the 
water,  that  the  arms  are  packed  together  in  a  straight 
line  to  serve  for  a  rudder,  and  that  a  stream  of 
water  underneath  drives  them  along.  And  when 
these  shell-fish  crawl  along  the  bottom,  the  so-called 
boat  is  inverted  like  the  shell  of  a  snail. 

As  Merry  as  a  Grig.  —  "  Merry  as  a  grig"  is  a 
common  comparison.  Grig  is  a  cricket ;  but  though 
the  cricket  is  the  emblem  of  cheerful  content,  the 
term  in  the  comparison  should  probably  be  "As 
merry  as  a  Greek,"  the  Greeks  being  notorious  for 
their  happy  natures. 

Slow- worms  and  Glow- worms.  —  The  blind 
worm,  or  slow-worm,  anatomically  considered,  is  not 
a  snake,  but  a  lizard  without  visible  legs ;  it  is  any- 
thing but  blind,  in  spite  of  its  name,  and  its  eyes, 
though  small,  are  brilliant.  That  it  is  a  lizard  is 
proved  by  the  presence  of  rudimentary  legs  beneath 


56  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

the  skin ;  the  eyes  are  furnished  with  movable  lids 
—  an  arrangement  not  belonging  to  snakes,  but 
found  in  lizards ;  the  tongue  is  notched  at  the  point, 
but  not  forked  as  with  snakes ;  finally,  the  expan- 
sion of  the  jaws  and  the  shape  of  the  scales  are 
quite  different  from  the  snake's.  The  idea  that  this 
little  snakelike  lizard  is  venomous  is  also  erroneous. 
In  calling  it  a  worm  we  retain  the  original  meaning 
of  the  name ;  the  old  English  for  any  snake  or 
dragon  is  wyrm  —  that  is,  worm.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  glow-worm  is  not  a  worm,  nor  has  it  the 
slightest  resemblance  to  one,  but  is  most  emphati- 
cally a  beetle ;  the  coral  anemone  is  incorrectly 
called  the  coral  "insect." 

Snakes  do  not  coil  round  a  Tree. —We  often 
see  snakes  represented  by  artists  and  in  stuffed 
specimens  in  museums  as  coiling  their  bodies 
around  trunks  and  branches  in  close,  corkscrew-like 
coils.  A  live  snake  never  does  this.  It  simply 
glides  up  with  the  whole  body  extended  in  a  straight 
line,  gripping  with  the  tips  of  its  exjDanded  ribs, 
and  clinging  with  the  concave  rows  of  pointed  scales 
as  it  presses  against  the  bark ;  and  after  reaching  a 
branch  it  maintains  its  position  by  still  clinging, 
neither  round  it  nor  half  round  it,  but  along  its 
upper  surface.  The  tail  alone  is  prehensile,  and  is 
used  particularly  when  the  snake  wishes  to  hang 
down  or  to  reach  over  to  another  branch. 

Snakes  have  Ears.  —  "  Deaf  as  an  adder  "  is  a 
popular  comparison.     Many  persons  imagine  that 


BIRDS    AND    INSECTS.  57 

the  auditory  apparatus  is  either  wanting  or  present 
in  a  merely  rudimentary  state  in  snakes.  This, 
however,  is  all  wrong.  Cornish,  in  his  "Life  at 
the  Zoo,"  says:  "At  the  first  note  of  a  violin  the 
cobra  instantly  raised  its  head  and  fixed  its  bright 
yellow  eyes  with  a  set  gaze  on  the  little  door  at  the 
back."  Snakes  generally  rustle  away  at  the  sound 
of  footsteps.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
deafness  is  more  prevalent  among  snakes  than 
among  creatures  with  more  prominent  ears. 

Coneerning  Rattlesnakes.  —  Many  think  the 
rattlesnake  rattles  only  when  it  is  bent  on  attacking. 
But  Darwin  thinks  it  probable  that  the  purpose  of  the 
rattling,  like  that  of  the  cobra  in  distending  its  hood, 
is  to  alarm  birds  which  attack  even  the  most  ven- 
omous snakes.  Others  imagine  that  a  rattlesnake 
is  a  magnanimous  enemy,  and  gives  a  sort  of  warn- 
ing by  rattling  before  it  strikes ;  but  it  very  fre- 
quently strikes  horses  without  the  least  note  of 
warning.  Another  picturesque  error  regarding  the 
rattlesnake  is  that  when  it  is  about  to  fight  it  coils 
itself  up  like  a  watchspring,  in  order  to  leap  for- 
ward at  an  object  some  distance  ahead.  It  simply 
gathers  itself  into  a  number  of  folds  resembling  a 
pile  of  S's,  and  darts  out  but  three-fourths  of  its 
own  length,  and  veiy  rarely  accomplishes  even  that 
in  actual  warfare. 

How  Deep-sea  Fish  fall  up.  — When  a  man 
ascends  to  a  very  high  altitude,  his  blood,  relieved 
from  a  portion  of  the  atmospheric  pressure,  forces 


5S  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

its  way  out  through  the  nose,  ears,  eyes,  and 
mouth.  If  he  could  go  higher  still,  his  whole 
body  would  expand  and  fall  to  pieces.  So  it  is 
with  creatures  inhabiting  the  depths  of  the  ocean. 
At  three  miles  below  the  surface  their  bodies  are 
subject  internally  (by  gases)  and  externally  to  a 
pressure  of  more  than  two  tons  to  the  square  inch, 
and  under  this  pressure  are  solid  enough,  and  also, 
because  this  pressure  does  not  increase  their  den- 
sity, are  comfortable  enough.  When  brought  to 
the  surface  in  dredges  the  bodies  of  such  creatures 
are  of  the  consistency  of  pulp,  even  their  bones 
become  loose  in  texture,  their  eyes  —  when  they 
have  any  —  start  out  of  their  heads,  and  often  their 
bodies  burst  asunder.  Hickson,  m  his  *'  Fauna 
of  the  Deep  Sea,"  says  :  "  The  fish  which  [that]  live 
in  the  enormous  depths  are  liable  to  a  curious  form 
of  accident.  If,  in  chasing  their  prey,  or  for  any 
other  reason,  they  rise  to  a  considerable  distance 
above  the  floor  of  the  ocean,  the  gases  of  their 
swimming  bladders  become  greatly  expanded,  and 
their  specific  gravity  [becomes]  greatly  reduced.  If 
the  muscles  are  not  strong  enough  to  drive  the 
body  downwards,  the  fish,  becoming  more  and  more 
distended  as  it  goes,  is  killed  on  its  long  and  invol- 
untary journey  to  the  surface  of  the  sea.  The  deep- 
sea  fish,  then,  are  exposed  to  a  danger  that  no 
other  creatures  in  this  world  are  subject  to,  namely, 
that  of  tumbling  upwards." 


COMMON    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        59 


CHAPTER  VI. 

COMMON   MISTAKES   OF   MANY   KINDS. 

Ancient  Statues  were  eoloped  and  adopned 
with  Real  Trappings.  —  Plaster  casts  in  museums 
do  not  correctly  represent  the  ancient  Greek  and 
Roman  marble  statues.  The  originals  were  often 
IDainted  in  gorgeous  colors,  and  gilded,  and  covered 
with  ornaments.  The  Greeks  and  the  Romans  were 
much  fonder  of  bright  hues  than  we  are.  The 
color  covered  the  entire  surface  of  the  marble, 
both  nude  parts  and  drajDcries.  In  recent  times  ex- 
periments have  been  made  by  many  sculptors  and 
painters  in  coloring  statuary,  but  it  is  repugnant  to 
modern  taste.  Professor  Lanciani,  speaking  upon 
the  universality  of  the  practice  of  coloring  marble 
statues  in  ancient  times,  says  of  the  Roman  statues 
found  in  Rome:  "  In  good  condition,  in  pure  earth 
and  at  a  considerable  depth,  one-half  showed  traces 
of  colors  at  the  very  moment  they  were  brought  to 
light.  Of  this  half  two-thirds  lost  their  polychromy 
at  once,  and  one-third  still  preserve  it." 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  either,  that  metal,  cord, 
wooden,  and  leather  accessories  were  afKxed  to  the 
marble.  This  is  evident  from  the  cylindrical  holes 
in  some  of  the  Parthenon  sculptures  in  the  British 


60  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Museum.  The  bridles  and  reins  were  real,  the 
sandal-straps  were  of  leather,  the  stone  hands' 
grasped  actual  weapons,  and  there  are  unmistakable 
examples  in  frieze  carving  that  the  cattle  led  to 
sacrifice  struggled  against  straps  or  cords. 

Why  the  Cock  stands  on  Steeples.  —The  com- 
mon practice  of  setting  a  cock  on  a  church  steeple 
is  popularly  associated  with  the  reproach  that  bird 
once  conveyed  to  St.  Peter.  But  in  very  early 
times  the  cock  placed  on  the  tops  of  sacred  trees 
and  turned  by  the  wind  was  believed  to  disperse 
evil  spirits  and  ward  off  approaching  calamities: 
its  living  prototype  did  the  same  by  its  crowing. 
The  cock  still  stand  on  may-poles  in  North  Ger- 
many. 

Minerva's  ^gis.  —  The  ^gis  borne  by  Zeus  or 
Athene  is  frequently  taken  to  be  an  ordinary  shield. 
Originally  it  was  a  simple  goat-skin  (as  the  original 
of  the  word  proves)  used  to  sujDport  the  shield  and 
at  the  same  time  to  serve  as  a  protection  and  cover- 
ing. Thus  it  came  to  be  confused  by  the  ancients 
themselves  with  the  shield  or  with  the  breast-plate. 
It  really  was  a  breast-covering  or  kind  of  short 
cloak,  set  with  the  Gorgon's  head  and  fringed  with 
snakes. 

Pan  a  Pupifler.  — The  Greek  god  Pan  which 
modern  poets  affect  to  worship  is  commonly  con- 

1 '•  Rings.  Ancient  Roman.  Diameter  of  bezel,  2|  inches. 
Ring  for  a  colossal  statue."  (Copy  of  label  at  South  Kensington 
Museum.) 


COMMON    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        61 

nected  with  the  ^YOvd  j^ctn,  meaning  all,  as  in  pan- 
theism. It  really  comes  from  the  Sanskrit  Pavana 
(from  the  root  pil,  to  purify),  the  wind-god. 

Prometheus  and  Fire.  —  The  legend  that  con- 
nected Prometheus  with  the  generous  gift  of  fire 
arose  from  the  Sanskrit,  in  wliich  Pramantha  is  the 
fire  drill ;  it  has  really  nothing  to  do  etymologi- 
call}^  with  forethought. 

Venus  was  not  a  Well-formed  Woman.— 
The  so-called  Venus  di  Medici  is  generally  regarded 
as  a  "  perfect  type  of  perfect  womanhood."  Pro- 
fessor Chadwick  thinks  that  she  is  not  worthy  of 
being  either  a  physiological  or  psychological  stand- 
ard. He  points  out  that  the  narrow  chest  indicates 
weak  lungs,  that  the  shoulders  are  not  well  braced 
up,  that  the  cranium  and  face  show  no  trace  of  mental 
vigor,  that  her  limbs  show  want  of  muscular  train- 
ing, and  that,  as  a  type  of  what  a  mother  and 
mistress  of  a  home  should  be,  she  is  contemptible. 

Pipe-coloring"  not  Modern. —We  are  apt  to 
think  that,  because  tobacco  is  used  in  pipes,  the  art 
of  pipe-coloring  dates  only  from  the  discovery  by 
Columbus  of  the  Island  of  Tobago,  or  from  the 
time  of  the  importation  of  tobacco  by  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh.  But  it  is  well  known  that  smoking  of 
various  leaves  —  sweet  fern  and  perhaps  Indian 
hemp  and  opium  —  was  regarded  as  a  luxury  even 
in  i^rehistoric  times.  Dr.  Petrie  says  that  bronze 
smoking-pipes  are  frequently  found  in  our  Irish 
tumuli,  or  sepulchral  mounds,  of  the  most  remote 


62  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

antiquity.  •'  On  the  monument  of  Donough 
O'Brien,  King  of  Thomond,  who  was  killed  in 
1267,  and  interred  in  the  Abbey  of  Corcumrae  in 
the  county  of  Clare,  he  is  represented  in  the  usual 
recumbent  posture,  with  the  short  pipe  or  dhudeen 
in  his  mouth."  It  is  said  that  in  the  mortar  of  the 
Kirkstall  Abbey  Church,  which  was  built  in  the 
twelfth  century  and  fell  in  ruins  in  1779,  several 
small  smoking-pipes  were  found. 

In  Asia  and  Africa,  as  well  as  in  America,  the 
pipe  was  known  in  prehistoric  times,  and  in 
Europe  generally  it  has  been  in  use  since  and 
during  the  Roman  period,  if  not  before. 

Wear  youp  Fups  outside.  —  According  to  the 
poem  the  Indian  woman,  Nokomis,  when  she  made 
a  pair  of  mittens, 

"  Put  the  skin-side  inside  outside, 
Put  the  fur-side  outside  inside," 

and  many  persons  imagine  that  it  would  be  an 
advantage  to  wear  the  fur  of  garments  and  muffs 
inside  instead  of  out.  Actual  tests,  however,  have 
proved  that  furs  conserve  far  greater  heat  on  the 
body  when  the  hair  is  exposed  to  the  air  than  when 
the  leather  is. 

Is  Death  Painless?  — Dr.  Roberts  Bartholow, 
formerly  Dean  of  Jefferson  Medical  College,  de- 
clared that  he  had  seen  persons  die  in  all  manner  of 
ways,  and  he  firmly  believed  that  dissolution  itself 
was  not  only  painless,  but  in  most  cases  blissful. 


COMMON    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        63 

Even  where  features  are  distorted  it  is  by  involun- 
tary muscular  contraction,  and  usually  where  suffer- 
ing has  preceded  death  the  features  take  on  a 
pleased  exjDression  as  if  the  body  were  at  perfect 
rest.  Freezing  to  death  is  generally  imagined  to 
be  the  least  painful  of  deaths,  but  the  great  Russian 
painter,  Vasili  Verestchagin,  says  of  the  prisoner 
defenders  of  Plevna,  who  fell  by  ones  and  twos  in 
the  road  through  the  forest:  "I  closely  examined 
the  faces  of  the  corpses  lying  in  every  imaginable 
position  along  the  road,  and  convinced  myself  that 
every  face  bore  the  impress  of  deep  suffering." 

When  Death  is  Most  Busy.  — Opinion  has  it 
that  the  largest  number  of  deaths  occur  in  the  early 
morning  hours,  while  dwellers  by  the  sea  are  rather 
generally  credited  with  the  belief  that  the  dying 
most  frequently  "  go  out  with  the  tide."  Careful 
observations  made  in  hospitals  are  said  to  have 
shown  that  death  takes  place  with  fairly  equal 
frequency  during  the  twenty-four  hours  of  the  day. 
An  inquiry  lately  made  in  Paris  showed  that  death 
is  just  a  little  less  busy  between  seven  and  eleven 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  but  that  with  this  exception 
the  proportion  was  about  even.  The  death-rate 
among  dwellers  in  apartment  houses  is  said  to  be 
noticeably  larger  on  the  third  and  fourth  floors. 
This  is  perhaps  due  to  the  extra  exertion  put  on  the 
heart  by  the  effort  in  mounting  the  steep  stairs. 

A  Popular  Mistake  about  the  Heart.  — The 
heart  is  not  situated  on  the  left  side  of  the  thorax, 


64  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

but  in  the  centre  immediately  behind  the  breast 
bone  and  between  tJie  lungs ;  only  the  point  is 
directed  toward  the  left  side,  and  if  a  line  be  drawn 
down  the  centre  of  the  chest  to  divide  the  heart  into 
two  2^ortions,  the  rather  larger  portion  wall  be  found 
on  the  right  side.  Physiologically,  the  heart  is 
nothing  but  a  powerful  automatic  muscle.  In  the 
language  of  love,  it  is  the  seat  of  the  affections ;  but 
the  ancients  attributed  that  supremacy  to  the  liver. 

Surgeons  say  that  when  a  bullet  enters  the  brain 
the  action  of  the  heart  is,  for  the  moment,  actually 
stimulated,  not  depressed,  but  that  the  respiration  is 
stopped,  and  the  proper  treatment,  as  in  the  case  of 
a  half-drowned  person,  is  artificial  resj)iration. 

The  heart  is  a  force-pump  measuring  six  by  four 
inches ;  it  beats  seventy  times  a  minute,  36,792,000 
times  a  year,  and  in  three  score  and  ten  years 
2,575,440,000  times,  forcing  2h  ounces  of  blood 
each  time,  or  7.03  tons  a  day;  30  pounds  of  blood 
goes  through  every  three  minutes,  equalling  122 
tons  raised  1  fool.  In  seventy  years  this  little  organ 
raises  178,830  tons  of  blood.  In  each  drop  of  blood 
there  are  1,000,000  corpuscles;  20,000,000  are  de- 
stro3^ed  at  each  inhalation. 

Bullets  that  act  like  Explosives.  —  In  the 
recent  war  with  Spain  the  charge  was  made  that  the 
Spaniards  were  firing  explosive  bullets  at  our  men. 
The  small  Mauser  balls  made  clean  w^ounds,  and 
when  they  did  not  instantly  kill  often  went  through 
the  lungs  or  the  brain,  disabling  their  victim,  but 


COMMON    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        65 

leaving  him  easily  cured.  But  other  bullets  made 
such  ugly  wounds  that  it  was  thought  they  must 
have  been  filled,  contrary  to  the  courtesy  of  nations, 
with  bursting  materials.  In  reality,  the  appearance 
of  exjDlosion  arises  from  the  nature  of  the  substance 
penetrated.  In  yielding  flesh  the  impulse  of  a  large 
bullet  is  distributed  laterally  in  all  directions,  and 
the  wound  is  correspondingly  torn.  By  firing  into 
wet  dough  every  indication  of  an  explosion  is  made, 
while  similar  bullets  directed  at  solid  substances, 
like  bone,  have  made  only  round  holes. 

Comets  and  Collisions. —Nervous  persons  are 
afraid  the  earth  may  be  struck  by  a  comet.  Accord- 
ing to  Babinet  the  chance  of  a  collision  between  our 
earth  and  a  comet  will  occur  once  in  fifteen  million 
years.  Arago  said  there  was  one  chance  out  of 
281,000,000. 

Round-pobins.  —  Some  ingenious  though  per- 
verse etymologists  have  tried  to  derive  the  expres- 
sion round-robin  from  the  French  roitd  ruban.  But 
no  Frenchman  ever  heard  of  such  an  expression.  It 
is  mistakenly  supposed  to  have  been  first  used  in 
1659  by  sailors  to  call  attention  to  existing  evils, 
and  to  have  been  devised  so  that  the  signatures 
should  be  equally  prominent,  that,  paradoxically 
speaking,  there  should  seem  to  be  no  ringleader. 
But  a  round-robin  was  presented  to  Parliament  in 
1643.  An  English  writer  sensibly  believes  that, 
like  the  word  "  Jack,"  Robin,  the  double  diminutive 
of  Robert,  was  "  a  picturesque  and  euphonious  sub- 


66  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

stitute  for  '  thing'  or  '  object.' "  Applied  to  a  pan- 
cake, it  is  at  least  two  hundred  and  fift}^  years  old. 

Plump  Childpen.  —  Appearances  are  deceitful. 
A  j)lump  child  is  not  necessarily  a  healthy  child. 
Dr.  E.  Smith,  in  a  work  on  foods,  says  :  "  The  addi- 
tion of  sugar  to  fresh  cow's  milk  greatly  lessens  its 
nutritive  value,  and  induces  a  tendency  to  muscular 
starvation."  And  he  concludes  :  "  The  more  fatten- 
ing infants'  foods  are,  the  less  likely  they  are  to 
make  muscular  men  and  women." 

The  London  "  Lancet"  declares  that  fat  children 
are  not  only  backward  in  learning  to  walk,  but  are 
also  less  able  to  resist  disease  ;  they  are  the  quickest 
to  succumb  to  measles,  diarrhoea,  whooping-cough, 
and  bronchitis. 

There  is  no  Noupishment  in  Beef-tea.  —  Beef- 
tea  is  a  stimulant  and  not  a  food.  Dr.  Geo.  Her- 
schel  is  authority  for  saying  there  is  no  nourish- 
ment in  beef -tea  at  all.  It  is  absolutely  poisonous 
(in  large  doses')  to  those  engaged  in  active  exercise^ 
as  the  extractives  which  it  contains  in  such  quanti- 
ties are  analogous  in  composition  and  action  to  the 
poisons  that  accumulate  in  the  muscle  during  exer- 
cise, and  cause  the  sensation  of  fatigue.  Further, 
the  potash  salts  in  beef-tea  act  as  direct  depressing 
agents  to  the  heart.  Moreover,  as  ordinarily  made, 
it  consists  of  the  flavoring  agents  (extractive)  and 
salts  of  the  meat,  together  with  a  certain  quantity 
of  gelatine.  The  strong  beef-tea,  made  in  a  cov- 
ered jar  in  the  oven,  on  cooling  sets  into  a  thick 


COMMON    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        (j7 

jelly,  which  is  gelatine.  This  thick,  strong,  glney 
beef- tea  is  not  digestible,  for  the  digestion  of  gelatine 
is  a  complicated  process.  Moreover,  gelatine,  being 
a  proximate  organic  principle,  is  incapable  alone  of 
sustaining  life. 

It  is  supposed  that  a  large  proportion  of  the 
nourisliing  part  of  the  meat  is  extracted,  and  that 
the  remainder  from  which  beef-tea  has  been  made 
is  of  no  food  value.  This  is  entirely  erroneous,  as 
the  proteid,  or  nourishing  part  of  meat,  is  insolu- 
ble in  boiling  water,  or,  in  fact,  in  water  above 
160°  Fahr.  In  such  beef-tea  all  the  real  meat  is 
thrown  away  in  the  cUhris  remaining  in  the  jar 
after  the  tea  has  been  strained  off.  This  fact  can 
easily  be  proved  by  feeding  two  dogs,  the  one  on 
the  strongest  beef-tea  that  can  be  made,  and  the 
other  on  the  shreds  of  meat  from  which  it  has  been 
extracted.  The  former  will  soon  die  of  starvation  : 
the  other  will  live  in  jDerfect  health  and  strength. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  lean-meat  diet  has  also 
its  dangers.  While  it  develops  the  strength,  it 
overtaxes  the  poison-eliminating  functions  of  the 
liver. 

Trust  not  Filtered  Water. —  To  filter  water 
does  not  purify  it  from  anything  dissolved  in  it, 
but  only  from  particles  floating  in  it.  If  tea,  or 
brandy  and  water,  are  poured  through  a  charcoal 
filter,  they  are  still  brandy  and  water,  or  tea.  Hence 
water  in  wliich  sewage  has  been  dissolved  is  not 
purified  by  filtration  ;  for  though  the  water  lose  its 


bo  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

bad  smell  and  any  foreign  matter  it  may  suspend, 
there  is  no  alteration  in  its  composition.  The  report 
of  the  Medical  Commission  at  the  instance  of  the 
"British  Medical  Journal"  (1895)  condemned  fil- 
tration as  affording  no  jDrotection  against  choleric, 
typhoid,  and  other  germs.  The  inquiry  was  based 
on  experiments  with  twenty-four  kinds  of  table 
filters  in  general  use,  and  points  out  that  what 
is  usually  called  "pure  water"  in  this  connec- 
tion should  be  called  "clear  water"  or  "palata- 
ble," as  without  the  precaution  of  previous  boiling 
it  may  be,  bacteriologically,  unwholesome  water. 
Of  course  these  remarks  are  probably  inapplicable 
to  improvements  in  filtration  such  as  the  Pasteur- 
Chamberland  process. 

Mistaken  Notions  about  the  Sea.  — Story 
writers  dealing  with  the  wonders  of  the  deep  have 
imagined  that  dead  bodies,  cargoes  of  ships,  and 
ships  themselves  sink  down  only  part  way,  the  den- 
sity of  the  water  keeping  them  from  reaching  the 
bottom.  But  as  such  bodies  are  of  greater  density 
than  water,  they  must  sink  to  the  very  bottom ; 
though  the  pressure  of  the  water  increases  in  pro- 
portion to  its  depth,  its  density,  even  under  the 
greatest  pressure,  is  but  slightly  increased,  and 
never  sufficiently  to  make  it  identical  with  the  den- 
sity of  any  falling  body  —  the  only  condition  in 
which  suspension  could  occur.  The  sea  in  order  to 
move  heavy  bodies  like  rocks  has  to  overcome  only 
about  half  of  the  weight  of  the  object.     A  solid  body 


COMMOX    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        69 

immersed  becomes  lighter  by  the  weight  of  water 
which  it  displaces. 

The  First  Transatlantic  Steamer.  —  Some 
cyclopaedias  say  that  the  first  vessel  to  cross  the 
Athmtic  by  steam  was  the  "  Rising  Sun  "  in  1818; 
others  say  the  first  steam  voyage  was  made  across 
the  Atlantic  by  the  "  Savannah."  All  are  wrong. 
A  tablet  has  lately  been  erected  in  the  Great  Hall 
of  the  Parliament  Buildings,  Ottawa,  commemo- 
rating the  fact  that  the  first  vessel  to  cross  the 
Atlantic  propelled  entirely  by  steam  was  the  "Royal 
William,'''  built  in  Canada  in  1833  by  James 
Groudie.  Some  fourteen  years  previously  the 
"Savannah"  crossed  from  Savannah  to  London, 
but  the  wood  that  she  carried  for  fuel  ran  short, 
and  she  was  compelled  to  cover  the  greater  part 
of  the  distance  with  the  aid  of  sails.  And  the 
claim  of  the  "Rising  Sun  "  has  yet  to  be  proved. 
The  "  Savannah  "  was  a  full-rigged  ship  of  380  tons, 
with  a  pair  of  paddle  wheels  so  constructed  that  in 
a  storm  they  could  be  unshipped.  On  her  first  voy- 
age she  was  chased  a  whole  day  off  the  coast  of 
Ireland  by  a  revenue  cruiser,  which  took  her  for  a 
shijD  on  fire.  Lombroso  says,  "  Blasco  de  Garay 
seems  to  have  propelled  a  vessel  by  steam  and  pad- 
dles in  the  harbor  of  Barcelona  in  1543." 

Steam  Locomotion.  —  Stephenson  was  not  the 
first  man  to  construct  a  steam  railway.  The  father 
of  the  locomotive  was  Richard  Trevithick,  of  Corn- 
wall,  England.     On   Feb.  21,   1801,  his  tramway 


70  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

engine  conveyed  a  load  of  ten  tons  of  bar  iron 
and  seventy  passengers  nine  miles  to  Merthyr 
Tydvil ;  but  though  it  worked  satisfactorily,  it  was 
regarded  as  more  expensive  than  horses. 

The  same  year  Oliver  Evans  made  a  machine 
called  Eructor  Amphibolis,  for  dredging  purposes. 
It  was  mounted  on  a  scow  with  four  wheels,  and 
after  going,  self-impelled  by  its  own  steam,  from 
his  shop  in  Philadelphia  to  the  Schuylkill,  it 
entered  the  river,  and  by  means  of  a  paddle-wheel 
proceeded  round  to  the  Delaware  and  performed 
its  work  of  dredging. 

The  first  engine  to  carry  passengers  on  a  track 
in  the  United  States  was  designed  by  Colonel  John 
Stevens,  of  Hoboken.  It  had  a  cog-wheel  that 
fitted  into  a  cast-iron  rack  in  the  centre  of  the  track. 
It  had  four  wooden  wheels,  the  tires  without 
flanges.  This  was  in  1825,  the  same  year  that 
George  Stephenson's  engine  "  Locomotion  "  ran  suc- 
cessfully between  Stockton  and  Darlington. 

It  is  a  very  pretty  legend  that  when  Napoleon 
was  bound  for  St.  Helena  on  the  "  Bellerophon," 
he  saw  a  ship  passing  by  under  steam  and  bear- 
ing the  name  of  Fulton,  who,  according  to  the 
story,  had  proposed  to  him  to  move  vessels  by 
steam  and  found  no  favorable  response.  Indeed, 
Bonaparte  is  said  to  have  called  him  hard  names. 
Neither  did  Dionys  Papin  escape  from  the  anger  of 
the  Landgrave  Karl  of  Hesse  by  fleeing  on  a  steam- 
boat of  his  invention.     He  experimented  in  steam- 


COMMON    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        71 

boats  in  the  seventeenth  century  on  the  Fukla,  but 
unsuccessfully.  Blasco  de  Garay  proposed  in  1540 
to  make  ships  move  without  oars  or  sail,  and  in 
1543  successfully  propelled  a  ship  according  to  his 
promise.  Karl  did  not  call  him  a  fool  and 
swindler,  as  Napoleon  called  Fulton,  but  though 
he  saw  no  good  in  the  machine  gave  him  200,000 
maravedis  and  paid  the  expenses.  Before  Ful- 
ton, Branca  1629,  Savary  1698,  Hull  in  1736,  New- 
comb  Watt,  Perrier  Murdock,  in  1775,  Jouffroy 
in  1781,  and  others,  made  more  or  less  successful 
experiments  with  steam  as  a  motor  for  naviga- 
tion. 

The  Fpeezing"  Power  of  Water.  —  If  water  is 
kept  quite  still  its  temperature  may  be  reduced 
to  much  below  32°  without  solidifying ;  in  fact,  it 
is  jDOssible  to  bring  it  actually  below  zero  in  a 
liquid  state,  but  the  instant  the  least  motion  occurs 
it  solidifies  in  a  mass.  The  adoption  of  32°  for 
ordinary  purposes  is  based  on  experiments  with 
pure  water  in  a  greater  or  less  state  of  agitation 
at  the  level  of  the  mean  tide  at  Liv^erpool.  Water 
when  it  freezes  expands,  and  the  leaking  of  water 
pipes  after  a  thaw  signifies  that  the  ice  had  acted 
as  a  plug  till  it  began  to  melt.  The  mischief  was 
done  at  the  moment  of  solidification. 

Primary  Colors.— The  artist's  primary  colors 
are  yellow,  red,  and  blue,  because  he  finds  that 
neither  of  these  colors  can  be  formed  by  the  mixt- 
ure of  others ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  physicist,  who 


72  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

deals  with  colored  rays  of  light,  shows  that  yellow 
can  be  formed  by  mixing  red  and  green  rays,  and 
hence  is  not  a  primary  color ;  while  violet,  which 
cannot  be  obtained  by  any  admixture,  he  considers 
to  be  one  of  the  three  primaries. 

There  is  no  National  Holiday.  —  ]N^ot  even  the 
Fourth  of  July  is  a  national  holiday.  Congress 
has  at  various  times  appointed  special  holidays. 
In  the  second  session  of  the  Fifty-third  Congress  it 
passed  an  act  making  Labor  Day  a  public  holiday 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  it  has  recognized 
the  existence  of  certain  days  as  holidays,  for  com- 
mercial purposes,  in  such  legislation  as  the  Bank- 
ruptcy Act ;  but  with  the  exception  named  there  is 
no  general  statute  on  the  subject.  The  proclama- 
tion of  the  President  designating  a  day  of  Thanks- 
giving makes  it  a  holiday  in  only  those  States  that 
provide  for  it  by  law. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  legal  holidays  in 
the  various  States : 

January  1.  New  Year's  Day:  In  all  the  States 
except  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  and  Rhode 
Island. 

January  8.  Anniversary  of  the  BaUle  of  New 
Orleans  :  In  Louisiana. 

January  19.  Lee's  Birthday :  In  Georgia,  North 
Carolina,  and  Virginia. 

February  12.     Lincoln's  Birthday  :  In  Illinois. 

February  22.  Washington's  Birthday  :  In  all  the 
States  except  Arkansas,  Iowa,  and  Mississippi. 


COMMON    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        73 

March  2.  Anniversary  of  Texan  Independence : 
In  Texas. 

March  4.  Firemen'^s  Anniversary:  In  New- 
Orleans,  La. 

April  i,  1896.  State  Election  Day :  In  Rhode 
Island. 

Ajjril  3,  1S96.  Good  Friday:  In  Alabama, 
Louisiana,  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  and  Tennessee. 

April  19.     Patriots^  Day :  In  Massachusetts. 

Aiml  21.  Anniversary  of  the  Battle  of  San 
Jacinto:  In  Texas. 

April  26.  Memorial  Day:  In  Alabama  and 
Georgia. 

May  10.     Memorial  Day  :  In  North  Carolina. 

May  20.  Anniversary  of  the  Signing  of  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence  :  In  North 
Carolina. 

May  30.  Decoration  Day:  In  Arizona,  Cali- 
fornia, Colorado,  Connecticut,  Delaware,  District  of 
Columbia,  Iowa,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Kansas,  Maine, 
Maryland,  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Minnesota, 
Montana,  Nebraska,  Nevada,  New  Hampshire,  New 
Jersey,  New  York,  North  Dakota,  Ohio,  Oklahoma, 
Oregon,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  Tennessee, 
Utah,  Vermont,  Wisconsin,  Washington,  and 
Wyoming. 

June  3.     Jefferson  Davis's  Birthday :   In  Florida. 

July  4.     Indep)endence  Day :  In  all  the  States. 

July  24.     Pioneers''  Day  :  In  Utah. 

First   Monday  in    September.      Labor   Day :   In 


74  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Alabama,  California,  Colorado,  Connecticut,  Dela- 
ware, Florida,  Georgia,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa, 
Kansas,  Maine,  Maryland,  Massachusetts,  Michi- 
gan, Montana,  Nebraska,  New  Hampshire,  New 
Jersey,  New  York,  Ohio,  Oregon,  Pennsylvania, 
South  Carolina,  South  Dakota,  Tennessee,  Texas, 
Utah,  Virginia,  Washington. 

^eplennher  9.     Admission  Day :  In  California. 

October  31.     Admission  Day :  In  Nevada. 

November.  General  Election  Day :  In  Arizona, 
California,  Idaho,  Indiana,  Kansas,  Maryland, 
Minnesota,  Missouri,  Montana,  Nevada,  New 
Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  New  York,  North  Dakota, 
Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  South  Carolina,  South  Dakota, 
Tennessee,  Texas,  West  Virginia,  Washington, 
Wisconsin,  and  Wyoming. 

November.  Thanksgiving  Day:  This  is  ob- 
served in  all  the  States,  though  in  some  it  is  not  a 
statutory  holiday. 

December  25.  Christmas  Day :  In  all  the  States, 
and  in  South  Carolina  the  two  succeeding  days  in 
addition. 

Sundays  and  Fast  Days  are  legal  holidays  in  all 
the  States  that  designate  them  as  such. 

Arbor  Day  is  a  legal  holiday  in  Kansas,  North 
Dakota,  Rhode  Island,  and  Wyoming,  the  day  being 
set  by  the  Governor ;  in  Nebraska,  April  22 ;  Cali- 
fornia, September  9  ;  Colorado,  on  the  third  Friday  in 
April ;  Montana,  third  Tuesday  in  April ;  Utah,  first 
Saturday  in  April ;  and  Idaho,  on  Friday  after  May  1. 


COMMON    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        75 

Every  Saturday  after  12  o'clock  noon  is  a  legal 
holiday  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  the  city  of 
New  Orleans,  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  and 
June  1  to  September  30  in  New  Castle  County, 
Delaware. 

Is  Friday  an  Unlucky  Day?  — The  belief  is 
widespread  that  Friday  is  an  unlucky  day.  Wliy 
should  it  be  ?  One  reason  given  is  that  Christ  was 
crucified  on  Friday.  Perhaps  it  arises  from  the 
popular  notion  that  Friday  is  a  changeable  day,  or, 
as  Chaucer  calls  it,  gerjul.     He  saj^s : 

"  Selde  is  the  Friday  al  the  wyke  alyke." 

An  old  Shropshire  couplet  says  : 

"  Friday's  a  day  as'Il  have  his  trick ; 
The  fairest  or  foulest  day  of  the  wick." 

As  a  proof  of  the  universality  of  the  superstition 
among  all  nations  and  ranks,  it  is  curious  to  note 
that  the  shipping  returns  of  all  countries  show  a 
much  lower  sailing  rate  on  Friday  than  any  other 
day  of  the  week. 

And  yet  P'riday  is  really  the  luckiest  day  in  the 
week  !  It  is  Frea,  day  of  the  god  of  peace  and  joy 
and  fruitfulness,  whose  emblems,  borne  aloft  by 
dancing  maidens,  brought  increase  to  every  field 
and  stall  they  visited,  Friday  is  the  Muhammedan 
Sabbath,  called  el  JimVci,  "  the  assembly." 

Here  is  a  partial  list  of  fortunate  Fridays  that 
might  well  dispel  forever  the  absurd  notion : 


76  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

On  Friday,  Aug.  21,  1492,  Christopher  Columbus 
first  sailed  upon  his  great  voyage  of  discovery  from 
Palos,  in  Spain.  On  the  11th  day  of  September, 
which  happened  uf)on  a  Friday,  while  in  mid-ocean, 
to  the  consternation  of  his  ofiicers  and  men,  the 
needle  of  the  compass  fluctuated  and  fell  off  in  an 
unexplainable  manner,  and  it  was  then 'that  all  hut 
Columbus  lost  faith  in  the  enterprise.  It  was  on 
Friday,  Oct.  12,  1492,  that  Columbus  first  discovered 
land.  On  Friday,  Jan.  4,  1493,  he  sailed  on  his 
return  to  Spain,  where  he  landed  in  safety  on  a 
Friday.  On  Friday,  Nov.  22,  1493,  he  arrived  at 
Hispaniola,  on  his  second  voyage  to  America.  It 
was  on  Friday,  June  13,  1494,  that  he  discovered 
the  continent  of  America. 

On  Friday,  March  5,  1496,  Henry  YUl.,  of  Eng- 
land, gave  John  Cabot  his  commission  which  led 
to  his  discovery  of  North  America.  This  is  the 
first  American  state  paper  in  England. 

Friday,  Sept.  7,  1505,  Melendez  founded  St. 
Augustine,  the  oldest  town  in  the  United  States. 

Friday,  Nov.  10,  1620,  the  "  Mayflower,"  with  the 
Pilgrims,  made  the  harbor  of  Provincetown,  and 
on  the  same  day  signed  the  august  compact,  the 
forerunner  of  our  present  Constitution.  On  Friday, 
Dec.  22,  1620,  the  Pilgrims  made  their  final  land- 
ing on  Plymouth  Rock. 

George  Washington  was  born  on  Friday,  Feb.  22, 
1732,  in  Westmoreland  County,  Va.,  near  the  banks 
of  the  Potomac  River. 


COMMON    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        77 

Bunker  Hill  was  seized  and  fortified  on  Friday, 
June  16,  1776. 

Fridfiy,  Oct.  7,  1777,  the  surrender  of  Saratoga 
was  made,  which  had  such  power  and  influence  in 
inducing  France  to  declare  herself  in  favor  of  our 
cause. 

Friday,  Sept.  22,  1780,  Arnold's  treason  was  laid 
bare,  which  saved  us  and  our  country  from  destruc- 
tion. 

The  surrender  of  Yorktown,  the  crowning  glory 
of  the  American  army,  occurred  on  Friday,  Oct. 
19,  1781. 

Friday,  July  7,  1776,  the  motion  was  made  in 
Congress,  by  John  Adams,  and  seconded  by  Richard 
Henry  Lee,  that  the  United  Colonies  were,  and  of 
right  ought  to  be,  free  and  independent. 

The  first  Masonic  Lodge  in  America  was  organized 
on  Friday,  Nov.  21,  1721. 

Bismarck,  Gladstone,  and  Disraeli  were  born  on 
Friday. 

Friday,  April  8,  1646,  the  first  known  newspaper 
advertisement  was  published  in  the  "  Imperial  In- 
telliocencer,"  in  Eno-land. 

Friday,  July  1,  1825,  General  Lafayette  was  wel- 
comed to  Boston  and  feasted  by  the  Freemasons 
and  citizens,  and  attended  at  the  laying  of 
the  corner-stone,  at  Bunker's  Hill,  of  the  monu- 
ment erected  to  perpetuate  the  remembrance  of 
the  defenders  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of 
America. 


78  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

The  Hudson  River  was  discovered  on  Friday, 
March  25,  1609. 

On  Friday,  March  18,  1776,  the  "  stamp  act"  was 
repealed  in  England. 

On  Friday,  Nov.  28,  1814,  the  first  newspaper 
ever  printed  by  steam,  the  London  "Times,"  was 
printed. 

On  Friday,  Jan.  13,  1785,  Gen.  Winfield  Scott 
was  born  in  Dinwiddle  County,  Va. 

Friday,  May  14,  1586,  Gabriel  Farenheit,  usually 
regarded  as  the  inventor  of  the  common  mercurial 
thermometer,  was  born. 

Friday,  Dec.  25,  1742,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  the  illus- 
trious philosopher,  was  born. 

Martin  Luther  was  born  on  Friday,  Nov.  10,  1543, 
at  Eiseben,  in  the  county  of  Mansfield,  in  Upper 
Saxony. 

Friday,  June  3,  the  steam  vessel  "Savannah" 
sailed  from  Savannah  to  Liverpool. 

George  Stephenson,  the  father  of  railways,  was 
born  on  Friday. 

The  "  Great  Eastern  "  left  the  Irish  coast  to  lay 
the  Atlantic  cable  on  Friday,  and  reached  Heart's 
Content  on  Friday. 

Queen  Victoria  was  married  on  a  Friday. 

The  battle  of  Waterloo  was  fought,  the  Bastile 
was  destroyed,  Moscow  was  burned,  and  the  battle 
of  New  Orleans  was  fought  on  Friday. 

On  Friday,  Jan.  1,  1808,  the  importation  of  slaves 
into  the  United  States  was  prohibited  by  Congress. 


COMMON    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        79 

There  are  a  multitude  more  that  might  be  added. 
Omar's  words  are  wise:  "  Worship  God;  be  not  a 
worshijjper  of  days." 

Fountain  Pens  and  Typewriters.  —  The  foun- 
tain pen  is  not  a  recent  invention.  In  1824  Thomas 
Jefferson  saw  one  in  use  and  wrote  to  General  Ber- 
nard Peyton  to  get  him  one.  The  first  English 
patent  for  a  fountain  pen  was  granted  in  1809  ;  the 
first  American  one  in  1830.  The  first  recorded 
patent  for  a  typewriting  machine  is  by  an  English- 
man named  Henry  Mill,  and  is  dated  1714.  In  1841 
a  Frenchman  named  Pierre  Foucalt  invented  a 
practicable  machine.  He  was  blind.  The  modern 
machine  is  due  to  an  American  named  Sholes,  who 
brought  it  to  perfection  in  1873. 

The  Bicycle  not  a  New  Invention. —  Evelyn's 
diary  under  the  date  of  Aug.  4,  1665,  speaks  of 
examining  at  Durdans  "  a  wheel  for  one  to  run 
races  in,"  contrived  by  Dr.  Wilkins,  Sir  William 
Petty,  and  Mr.  Hooke,  three  men  notable  for  "  parts 
and  ingenuity."  In  a  stained  glass  window  at 
Stoke  Poges,  dating  back  to  the  seventeenth  century, 
there  is  a  representation  of  a  mechanical  wheel  like 
a  bicycle.  It  is  "  really  a  cherub  on  EzekiePs 
wheel." 

The  Dutch  did  not  invent  Thimbles.  —  A 
newspaper  states  "  that  the  Dutch  invented  the 
thimble  in  1690."  Thorold  Rogers,  in  his  "  History 
of  Agriculture  and  Prices  in  England,"  gives  the 
quotation  of   a   dozen   thimbles,  in   1494,    as   four 


80  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

shillings.  Shakespeare  speaks  of  them.  Edward 
Peacock  thinks  that  they  were  undoubtedly  pre- 
historic. 

Magnetic  Mountains.  — Readers  of  the  "Ara- 
bian Nights"  will  remember  the  mao-netic  black 
mountain  that  drew  all  the  nails  out  of  the  ships  and 
caused  them  to  fall  to  pieces.  A  Vienna  newspaper 
says  the  island  of  Bornholm  in  the  Baltic  is  a  huge 
magnet  that  has  sufficient  power  to  deflect  the  needle 
and  turn  the  vessel  out  of  its  course.  The  magnetic 
influence  is  felt  at  a  distance  of  fifteen  kilometers 
(nine  miles  and  a  half). 

The  Earth  as  a  Conductor. —It  is  still  sup- 
posed by  many  persons  that  the  electrical  conduc- 
tivity of  the  earth  is  infinite.  But  it  is  a  fact  well 
ascertained  that  "in  railway  return  circuits  the 
earth  return  does  more  harm  than  good  ;  for  power 
service  the  earth  is  useless  as  a  return,  and  in  teleg- 
raphy alone  it  appears  likely  to  serve  a  permanently 
useful  purpose." 

Electric  Light  in  Fog.  —  The  notion  obtains 
in  England  that  the  electric  light  does  not  penetrate 
the  fog.  This  is  unfounded.  Owing  to  this  preju- 
dice lighthouses  furnished  with  electricity  are  fewer 
on  the  English  coast  than  along  the  coast  of 
France. 

Depth  of  Coral  Reefs.  —  Darwin's  theory  that 
coral  reefs  are  formed  by  subsidence,  the  coral  poly^D 
building  up  as  the  land  sank,  has  been  recently  dis- 
proved by  borings.     The  great  atoll  on  the  Yucatan 


COMMON    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        81 

bank  is  only  32  fathoms  deep.  Those  on  the  Solomon 
Islands  are  only  from  125  to  130  feet  deep  ;  along  the 
coast  of  Cuba  only  145  feet ;  and  along  the  coast  of 
Florida  only  60  feet.  According  to  Darwin  they 
should  have  been  at  least  2,000  feet. 

The  Weig-ht  of  the  Brain.  —  Advocates  of  the 
superiority  of  man  over  woman  usually  use,  as  an 
argument,  the  fact  that  man's  brain  weighs  from 
one-ninth  to  one-twelfth  more  than  the  average 
woman's.  Neither  weight  nor  multiplicity  of  con- 
volutions seems  to  be  a  safe  criterion.  The  brain  of 
the  great  chemist  Liebig  was  below  the  average  in 
weight.  The  brain  of  the  elephant  is  richer  in  con- 
volutions than  man's. 

Lead  Shot.  —  It  is  generally  supposed  that  lead 
shot  are  made  spherical  by  falling,  and  that  the  shot 
towers  are  built  for  that  puri^ose.  They  are  more 
perfect  in  shape  the  instant  they  start  than  at  any 
other  time.  But  in  falling  the  two  hundred  feet 
they  cool  and  harden,  and  are  received  into  water 
which  acts  as  a  cushion.  Arsenic,  mixed  with  the 
lead,  causes  the  molten  mass,  when  strained  through 
a  perforated  receptacle,  to  form  into  globules. 

The  Hopse-power  of  Guns.  — It  is  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  a  large  cannon  is  longer  lived  than 
a  shot-gun.  The  "  Engineering  and  Mining  Jour- 
nal "  says  that  after  about  one  hundred  shots  have 
been  fired  they  are  practically  useless.  Three  hun- 
dred shots  represent  only  one  second  of  actual  work ! 
For  a   100-ton   gun   with   a  550-pound  charge  of 


U%X^ 


82         .  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

powder  throws  a  projectile  weighing  2,020  pounds 
at  an  initial  velocity  of  1,715  feet  a  second.  The 
kinetic  force  employed  in  the  one  one-hundredth  of 
a  second  is  equivalent  to  92,597,000  foot-pounds,  or 
17,000,000-horse  power. 

Boek  Bier.  —  In  spite  of  the  brewers'  pictures 
of  a  buck  dancing  on  a  barrel,  the  word  bock  in 
the  spring-brewing  of  beer  has  no  derivation  to  cor- 
respond with  such  art.  It  is  said  to  be  derived  from 
the  town  of  Eimbeck,  in  Hanover,  where  particu- 
larly strong  beer  was  made.  This  was  changed  mto 
ein  bock,  meaning  a  glass ;  but  here  the  buck  may 
be  a  pony. 

Prussie  Acid  and  Almonds. —A  British  news- 
paper, referring  to  the  death  of  a  bird,  attributes  it 
to  the  presence  of  prussie  acid  in  a  bitter  almond. 
But  in  the  natural  state  there  is  none.  Prussie  acid 
results  from  the  manufacture  of  "oil  of  bitter 
almonds."  The  cake  left  after  the  natural  oil  has 
been  pressed  out  contains  two  constituents  called 
amygdaline  and  synaj^tase.  When  the  cake  is  made 
into  a  paste  with  Avater,  and  allowed  to  remain  at  a 
moderately  warm  temperature,  the  synaptase  causes 
the  amygdaline  to  ferment  and  decompose  into  the 
volatile  "  oil  of  bitter  almonds,"  and,  among  other 
substances,  prussie  or  hyorocyanic  acid.  Neither 
the  oil  nor  the  poison  is  in  the  almonds  originally ; 
in  fact,  the  latter  contain  not  the  slightest  trace  of 
either  ready  formed.  Tiie  "  Globe  "  Encyclopiedia 
says  :  '*  Bitter  almonds  possess  a  poisonous  principle 


COMMON    MISTAKES    OF    MANY    KINDS.        83 

similar  in  effects  to  prussic  acid,"  but  while  this 
"poisonous  iDi-inciple"  remains  undefined,  we  are 
not  quite  sure,  suj^posing  bitter  almonds  were  eaten 
in  large  quantities  and  remained  long  undigested, 
that  the  formation  of  j^russic  acid  in  the  way  de- 
scribed would  not  actually  be  accelerated  by  the 
warmth  of  the  stomach. 

Pulque  Skins.  —  Pulque  is  sold  at  Mexican 
railway  stations  in  hog-skins  or  sheep-skins  taken 
whole  from  the  animal.  A  popular  explanation  of 
the  mystery  is  that  the  creature  is  tied,  with  food 
placed  just  beyond  his  reach.  He  struggles  so  hard 
to  get  at  it  that  he  finally  walks  out  of  his  skin, 
leaving  it  whole  behind  him.     This  is  an  error ! 


84  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


CHAPTER  Vn. 

WORDS,    PHRASES,    AND   THINGS   THAT   ARE   MIS- 
UNDERSTOOD. 

"  Born  in  the  Purple."  —  The  epithet  porphyro- 
genitus  —  "  born  in  the  purjile  ""  —  does  not  refer  to 
the  Roman  or  Grecian  Imperial  Court  dye,  but  to 
the  fact  that  the  Empresses  of  Constantine's  city, 
when  they  drew  near  the  time  of  child-bearing, 
were  lodged  in  the  Porphyry  Chamber.  This  was 
at  the  south-west  corner  of  the  palace,  and  its  floors 
and  walls  were  covered  with  purple  marble.  The 
title  was  first  oflicially  applied  to  Constantine  VIL, 
—  Constantine  Porphyrogenitus,  —  who  reigned  in 
the  tenth  century. 

The  Bar  Sinister.  —  It  is  a  mistake  to  speak  of 
a  bar  sinister  as  a  sign  of  bastardy.  It  is  a  false 
translation  of  the  French  barre,  which  means  bejid 
sinister. 

Apologies  do  not  imply  Faults.  —  George  the 
Third,  when  told  that  Bishop  Watson  had  published 
••  An  Apology  for  the  Bible,"  remarked  that  he  did 
not  know  that  the  Bible  needed  an  apology.  The 
king  did  not  realize  that  the  word  is  also  used  in  the 
old  Greek  sense  of  defence.  Hence  a  Christian 
apologist  is  one  who  defends,  not  excuses ;  he  does 


THINGS    THAT    ARE    MISUNDERSTOOD.         S5 

not  admit  the  existence  of  fault  in  the  Bible  which 
he  defends.  The  "  Evidences  of  Christianity '' are 
for  the  same  reason  technically  called  apologetics. 

Epicures.— Epicure  is  very  generally  supposed 
to  mean  one  whose  chief  pleasure  is  a  voluptuous 
gratification  of  the  appetite.  The  right  definition 
is,  one  who,  however  humble  his  fare,  will  have 
it  of  the  best  of  its  kind.  Rousseau  said:  "Ab- 
staining, so  as  really  to  enjoy,  is  epicurism,"  and 
the  "  pleasure  "  which  Epicurus,  the  apostle  of  tem- 
perance, with  his  barley  cake  and  water,  set  before 
his  apostles  consisted  of  the  pleasures  of  refine- 
ment perfected  by  reason,  whether  in  eating  or 
drinking,  religion  or  politics,  arts  or  science,  or  in 
the  pleasures  of  wine  and  love. 

Norsemen  and  Northmen.  —  The  Norsemen 
were  the  Norwegians,  who  spoke  a  language  called 
Norse ;  the  Northmen  were,  of  course,  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  Northern  Europe. 

Do  not  say  "  Vi-king."  —  This  word  is  not  prop- 
erly pronounced  "  vy-king,"  and  does  not  mean  a 
"sea-king."  The  appropriateness  of  this  error  has 
made  it  long-lived.  The  termination  is  "  ing,"  not 
"  king;  "  the  syllable  "  vik"  is  the  Norse  word  for 
"creek"  or  "cove,"  and  "  ing "  for  "sons"  or 
"  peojDle."  Wherefore  "  Vikings  "  means  "  sons  or 
people  of  the  creek." 

A  little  more  than  Kin  and  less  than  Kind.  — 
The  word  king  is  not,  as  is  commonly  supposed, 
derived  from  the  Saxon  cunnan,  to  know,  as  of  one 


5b  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

who  has  power  or  can  because  he  kens  or  knows. 
It  is  allied  with  the  Sanskrit  ganaka,  a  father,  from 
the  word  gan,  to  beget,  akin  with  our  kin.  Kin-ing 
therefore  means  son  of  the  kin  or  tribe,  a  chosen 
leader. 

The  Origin  of  Foolscap.  —  The  following  par- 
ticulars were  given  in  the  "  Lithographer,''  to 
account  for  the  origin  of  this  term:  "Charles  I. 
granted  numerous  monopolies  for  the  supj^ort  of 
the  government,  and  among  others  was  the  man- 
ufacture of  paper.  The  vvater-mark  of  the  finest 
sort  was  the  royal  arms.  This  monopoly  was  set 
aside  by  the  Parliament  that  brought  Charles  I.  to 
the  scaffold,  and,  by  way  of  showing  contempt  for 
the  king,  they  ordered  the  royal  arms  to  be  taken 
from  the  paper,  and  a  fool,  with  his  cap  and  bells, 
to  be  substituted.  It  is  now  over  two  hundred 
years  since  the  fool's  cap  was  taken  from  the  paper, 
but  still  the  size  which  the  Rump  Parliament  ordered 
for  their  journals  bears  the  name  of  the  water- 
mark placed  there  as  an  indignity  to  Charles." 

There  is  no  truth  in  this  frequently  reiterated 
statement  that  the  Rump  Parliament  placed  a  fool's 
cap  on  their  own  paper  to  spite  the  dead  king. 
The  cap  and  bells  may  account  for  the  origin  of  the 
name  foolscap,  but  the  water-mark  itself  is  still 
shrouded  in  mystery.  The  term  was  in  use  at 
least  as  early  as  1659 ;  and  an  alleged  example 
of  it,  dated  1479,  figures  in  a  catalogue  of  an 
exhibition.  There  is  no  justification  for  the  deriva- 
tion from  the  Italian  foglio  cajjo. 


THINGS    THAT    ARE    MISUNDERSTOOD.         87 

The  Flag  that  rules  the  Wave.  ~  The  "  Jack," 
say  most  authorities,  refers  to  James  VI.  of  Scot- 
land (James  I.  of  England),  whose  signatm'e  was 
always  "Jacques.'"  It  was  so  called  because  used 
as  a  "jack"  —  that  is,  in  sea  language,  a  flag 
displayed  from  the  end  of  a  staff  on  a  bowsprit; 
hence  the  name  "Union  Jack"  has  come  to  be 
applied  on  land  to  the  larger  "union"  flag  itself. 
The  opinion  is  to  some  extent  confirmed  by  the 
sailors'  personification  of  the  yellow  fever  into 
"  Yellow  Jack,"  which  at  first  was  merely  a  yellow 
flag  or  jack. 

"Tun"  and  its  Meaning.  —  Many  grammars 
say  tun,  at  the  end  of  names,  signifies  "town"  or 
"village."  But  "tun"  was  really  the  name  of  a 
single  Saxon  homestead.  The  popular  accounts  of 
the  depopulation  of  the  New  Forest  by  William  I. 
are  thus  brought  at  least  within  the  bounds  of  credi- 
bility. 

Cinderella's  Glass  Slipper.  —  Unimaginative 
etymologists  have  done  their  best  to  destroy  the 
poetic  beauty  of  Cinderella's  slipper  by  arguing  that 
the  words  la  petite  pantoufle  de  verre  —  the  little 
glass  slipper  —  as  found  in  Perrault's  story,  pub- 
lished in  1697,  should  he  jmiitoufle  de  vair,  vair  being 
a  kind  of  fur  —  miniver  or  weasel.  But  surely  if 
the  slipper  had  been  of  fur  the  sisters  would  have 
had  no  trouble  in  forcing  their  toes  into  it.  More- 
over, the  fairy  godmother  who  could  change  a 
pumi^kin  into  a  coach,  and  mice  into  horses,  would 


8S  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

not  hesitate  to  give  Cinderella  slippers  of  glass, 
spun  glass,  perhaps,  and  flexible. 

Wainscot.  —  In  Walter  M.  Skeat's  Etymolog- 
ical Dictionary  "  wainscot"  is  derived  from  Dutch 
wagen,  a  wain  or  wagon.  He  himself  became 
convinced  that  this  popular  derivation  is  wrong,  and 
his  later  edition  attributes  it  to  the  Middle  Dutch 
waeg,  a  wall. 

Cpeoles.  —  Strictly  speaking,  a  creole  is  the  off- 
spring of  European  j^arents,  though  now  the  term 
is  used  in  the  colonies  as  a  general  designation  for 
anything  West  Indian,  negro,  and  English,  animal 
and  vegetable  alike  ;  thus,  "creole  mutton,"  "  creole 
cat,"  and  "creole  basket."  Hence  it  has  come  to 
mean  a  person  of  white  and  black  parentage,  born 
in  the  West  Indies  or  South  America.  This  is 
wrong,  for  such  a  one  is  a  mulatto.  The  Standard 
Dictionary  gives  the  derivation  of  the  word  from 
criollo,  a  negro;  and  that  from  creado,  a  servant, 
from  crear,  to  create.     But  this  is  doubtful. 

Cyclones,  Tornadoes,  and  Huppieanes.  — 
These  three  words  are  usually  confused  except  in 
scientific  writings.  A  cyclone  is  a  storm  covering 
a  vast  extent  of  countiy  —  some  are  one  or  two 
thousand  miles  in  diameter  —  and  having  a  system 
of  winds  that  blow  spirally,  although,  owing  to  the 
great  extent  of  the  storm,  the  wind  at  any  particu- 
lar place  seems  to  be  blowing  straight  ahead.  A 
tornado,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  fierce  whirlwind, 
the  path  of  which  is  generally  only  a  few  rods  wide, 


THINGS    THAT    ARE    MISUNDERSTOOD.         89 

It  sometimes  travels  many  miles,  destroying  every- 
thing in  its  course.  A  funnel-shaped  cloud  formed 
by  condensed  vapor,  and  clouds  of  dust  in  the  very 
core  of  the  tornado,  are  its  distino^uishin^  feature. 
Tn  the  infantile  days  of  language-study  hurricane 
was  supposed  to  be  a  storm  that  harried  planta- 
tions and  hurried  the  cane  !  In  other  words,  raised 
Cain  with  them.  The  word  is  really  a  West  Indian 
word.  In  Irving's  "Columbus"  it  says  that  the 
awful  whirlwinds  that  "  occasionally  rage  within 
the  tropics  "  were  called  by  the  Indians  "  furicanes  " 
or  "  uricans."  The  word  is  said  to  be  the  name  of 
the  tempest  god  Hurikon. 

Piazza.  —  This  Italian  word  denotes  what  the 
Spanish  call  plaza,  French  place,  and  the  Eng- 
lish a  square.  Architecturally  it  means  an  arcade, 
a  portico,  or  covered  walk  supported  by  columns. 
In  the  United  States  it  has  come  to  mean  a  verandah 
or  porch,  or  even  a  balcony. 

A  Chateau  is  not  necessarily  a  Castle.  — 
What  the  French  call  chateau,  unless  it  be  in 
Spain,  generally  signifies  a  large  stone  farmhouse. 

Mephistopheles  a  Devil,  but  not  the  Devil.  — 
This  fiendish  character  in  Goethe's  ' '  Faust  "  was 
not  the  devil,  but  only  one  of  the  devil's  many 
mediaeval  assistants. 


90  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MISTAKES   WE  MAKE  IN  CONNECTION  WITH   ANCIENT 
HISTORY. 

Thothmes  the  Third  not  to  be  eompared  with 
Alexander.  —  Miss  Amelia  B.  Edwards,  in  her 
"  Pharaohs,  Fellahs  and  Explorers  '^  (p.  160),  says  : 
"  Thothmes  the  Third  was  the  Alexander  of  ancient 
Egyptian  history.  He  conquered  the  known  world 
of  his  day ;  he  carved  the  names  of  six  hundred  and 
twent^^-eight  vanquished  nations  and  captured  cities 
on  the  walls  of  Karnak ;  and  he  set  up  a  tablet  of 
victory  in  the  Great  Temple." 

But  Prof.  George  Rawlinson  says  his  task  was 
trivial  as  compared  with  tliat  of  the  Macedonian 
general,  and  his  achievements  were  insignificant. 
Instead  of  plunging  with  a  small  force  into  the 
midst  of  populous  countries,  and  contending  with 
armies  ten  or  twenty  times  as  large  as  his  own,  de- 
feating them,  and  utterly  subduing  a  vast  empire, 
Thothmes  marched  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  dis- 
ciplined army  into  thinly  peopled  regions,  governed 
by  petty  chiefs  jealous  of  one  another,  fought 
scarcely  a  single  great  battle,  and  succeeded  in 
conquering  two  regions  of  a  moderate  size,  Syria 
and  Mesopotamia. 


MISTAKES    IN    ANCIENT    HISTORY.  91 

Alexander  overran  and  subdued  the  entire  tract 
between  the  Mgeim  and  the  Sutlej,  the  Persian 
Gulf  and  the  Oxus.  Thothmes  subdued  not  a  tenth 
part  of  the  space,  and  the  empire  which  he  estab- 
lished did  not  endure  for  more  than  a  century. 

Alexander  conquered  Egypt  and  founded  a  dy- 
nasty there  which  lasted  ior  nearly  three  centuries. 
It  is  thus  absurd  to  compare  the  third  Thothmes 
with  the  great  Alexander  in  the  light  of  a  conqueror. 

Forgetting  that  he  was  a  first-rate  administrator, 
we  are  inclined  to  think  of  Alexander  as  only  a 
victor.  He  so  organized  the  East  that  it  continued 
for  nearly  three  centuries,  and  mainly  under  Greek 
rule.  Thothmes,  on  the  contrary,  organized  noth- 
ing. He  left  his  conquests  in  such  a  condition  that 
at  his  death  all  of  them  revolted  and  had  to  be  re- 
established. 

Alexander  did  not  weep  for  Other  Worlds 
to  conquer.  —  Plutarch  says:  "Alexander  wept 
when  he  heard  '  that  there  was  an  infinite  number  of 
worlds,  and  his  friends  asking  him  if  any  accident 
had  befallen  him,  he  returns  this  answer :  '  Do  you 
not  think  it  a  matter  worthy  of  lamentation  that 
when  there  is  such  a  vast  number  of  them,  we 
have  not  yet  conquered  one  ?  '  " 

Alexander  did  not  "weep  for  other  worlds  to 
conquer, '^  but  because  his  ambition  was  so  far  from 
being  realized  in  this. 

1  From  Anasarchus,  his  favorite  philosopher,  who  accompanied 
the  Asiatic  expeditions. 


92  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

There  is  good  reason  to  suspect  that  in  India  his 
army  met  with  serious  reverses,  which  induced  him 
to  retrace  his  steps. 

The  Story  of  Troy  a  Myth.  — Able  historians 
have  tried  to  fix  the  time  of  the  siege  of  Troy,  and 
liave  argued  in  favor  of  at  least  a  dozen  dates 
between  1335  and  1149  B.C.  According  to  Homer's 
account,  Helen  must  have  been  not  less  than 
sixty  years  old  when  Paris  fell  in  love  with  her, 
but  then  she  was  supposed  to  partake  with  Castor 
and  Pollux  of  immortality.  Recent  discoverers 
have  found  remains  of  a  number  of  large  cities 
on  the  supposed  site  of  Ilion. 

The  Battle  of  Thermopylse.  —  History  states 
that  in  480  B.C.  a  small  army  of  Greeks  under 
Leonidas  defended  the  pass  of  Thermopyl£e  against 
a  vast  army  under  Xerxes  (Khshay^rsha)  —  the 
Biblical  Ahasuerus.  Their  position  was  betrayed, 
and  Leonidas  sent  away  his  troops,  except  300 
Spartans  and  700  Thespians,  who  remained  to  defend 
the  j^ass,  and  were  slain.  But  modern  investigators 
have  proved  that  Xerxes'  army  was  grossly  exagger- 
ated, and  that  it  was  not  stopped  by  1,000  men,  but  by 
7,000,  or  even,  as  some  authors  compute,  by  12,000. 
Moreover,  the  Spartan  contingent  showed  no  more 
bravery  in  this  conflict  than  their  companions  in  arms. 

Apehimedes  and  his  Cipeles.  —  It  is  undoubt- 
edly a  historical  fact  that  Archimedes  met  his  death 
when  the  Romans  under  Marcellus  attacked  and 
captured  Syracuse,  212  B.C.     But  the  story  that  he 


MISTAKES    IN    ANCIENT    HISTORY.  93 

was  engaged  in  mathematical  work,  and  was  busy 
contemplating  certain  circles  drawn  in  the  sand 
when  a  Roman  soldier  appeared,  may  or  may  not 
be  true.  "  Do  not  disturb  my  circles ! "  the  phi- 
losopher is  said  to  have  exclaimed,  but  the  soldier 
struck  him  down.  This  is  a  pretty  fiction.  So  also 
is  the  story  of  his  great  burning  glass  which  burned 
the  ships  of  the  Romans  in  the  harbor.  The  cir- 
cumstances are  impossible.  The  story  that  he  said, 
"Give  me  a,  pou  sto  and  I  will  move  the  world," 
is  another  invention  of  later  days. 

The  Gate  of  Janus.  —  The  strange  Roman  god 
Janus,  with  two  faces,  had  a  gateway  close  by 
the  Forum  dedicated  to  his  honor  by  King  Numa ; 
but  there  is  no  reason  for  styling  it  Janus'  Temple, 
unless  because  it  contained  a  bronze  statue  of  the 
god,  and  thus  became  a  sacred  place.  It  was 
merely  an  archway  with  two  doors,  one  on  a  side, 
closed  in  time  of  peace,  and  opened  only  in  time 
of  war.  An  Etruscan  god,  with  two  or  four  faces, 
was  identified  with  Janus,  hence  the  plastic  repre- 
sentation. The  word  Janus  is  another  form  of 
Dianus,  the  sun,  just  as  the  associated  goddess 
Jana  is  Diana,  the  moon.  But  the  later  Romans 
connected  the  name  with  Janua,  a  door,  hence  the 
name  of  the  month  January.  As  the  god  of  all 
beginnings,  he  was  regarded  with  special  rever- 
ence. A  temple  to  him  was  built  by  Cains  Duilius 
at  the  time  of  the  first  Punic  war ;  this  was  re- 
stored by  Augustus   and  dedicated  by  Tiberius. 


94  THE    MISTAKES    AVE    MAKE. 

Rose  not  a  Flower.  —  The  English  given  name 
Rose  is  by  some  believed  to  be  derived  from  the 
Teutonic  hros,  meaning  fame,  just  as  Rosamond 
is  hros-mund,  "  famed  protection,"  and  not 
•'  chaste  rose."  Nor  is  tliere  any  rose  in  the  Ro- 
setta  stone ;  its  name  is  a  corruption  of  the  Arabic 
raahid,  glorious. 

A  Left-handed  Yarn.  —  Many  stories  have  been 
invented  to  explain  the  apj^arent  meanings  of  proper 
names.  Thus  the  Roman  family  name  Scsevola, 
which  means  the  Left  Handed,  is  accounted  for  by 
the  familiar  legend  retold  by  Macaulay  in  his  "  Lays 
of  Ancient  Rome."  It  is  said  that  in  509  B.C.  Mucins 
Sca3vola  made  his  way  into  the  camp  of  King  Por- 
sena  to  kill  him,  while  he  was  besieging  Rome. 
But  he  killed  instead  a  royal  secretary,  whom  he 
mistook  for  the  king.  He  was  threatened  with 
death  by  fire  unless  he  revealed  the  details  of  a 
conspiracy,  whereupon  he  thrust  his  right  hand  into 
the  fire  prepared  for  him  and  burnt  it  off.  This 
firmness  allayed  the  suspicions  and  excited  the 
admiration  of  Porsena,  who  ordered  his  release. 
The  story  of  Tarquin's  insult  to  Lucretia  is  also  a 
legend.  Tarquin's  power  may  have  been  overthrown 
by  a  popular  insurrection,  but  its  cause  was  not 
that  given  in  the  poem  of  Shakespeare. 

Hopatius  and  the  Bridge.  — Macaulay  in  an- 
other lay  tells 

"  How  well  Horatius  kept  the  bridge 
In  the  brave  days  of  old." 


MISTAKES    IN    ANCIENT    HISTORY.  95 

Horatius  never  defended  the  bridge  over  the 
Tiber  against  the  Etruscans  ;  neither  did  the  mother 
of  Coriolanus  intercede  with  her  son  to  spare  Rome. 
The  story  is  a  modern  fabrication. 

Sappho  did  not  commit  Suicide.  —  About  600 
B.C.  flourished  the  famous  Grecian  lyric  poetess 
Sappiio,  or  Psappha,  as  she  called  herself  in  her  own 
^olic  dialect.  The  ancients  delighted  to  call  her 
"  The  Poet,"  so  unique  was  her  renown.  There  is  no 
foundation  for  the  story  that  she  was  a  wanton 
beauty  who  threw  herself  from  the  Leucadian  prom- 
ontory into  the  sea,  out  of  love  for  a  beautiful 
youth,  Phason,  who  disdained  her  advances.  Late 
investigations  prove  her  to  have  been  a  respectable 
married  woman  with  a  large  family,  which  she 
raised  with  as  much  care  as  a  Greek  matron  usually 
bestowed  on  her  children.  * 

It  is  not  too  commonly  known  that  her  nine  books 
of  lyric  poems  were  burnt  by  some  anti-Pagan 
fanatic.  Scaliger  says  that  Pope  Gregory  VII.  was 
the  miscreant,  in  the  year  1073 ;  but  Mr.  N.  T. 
Wharton  rejects  this  as  lacking  confirmatory  evi- 
dence, and  offers  the  alternative  story  of  Cardan, 
who  gives  380  as  the  year  of  the  burning,  under 
Gregory  Nazianzen. 

All  that  are  left  to  us  are  her  "  Ode  to  Aphrodite," 
and  the  fragmentary  allusions  and  quotations  from 
her  works  by  ancient  writers. 

Romulus  a  Myth.  —  The  beautiful  story  of 
Romulus  and  Remus  suckled  by  the  she-wolf,  and 


96  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

their  quarrel,  and  the  foundation  of  the  city  of  Rome, 
has  no  historic  foundation.  The  first  person  to  relate 
it  lived  hundreds  of  years  after  the  reputed  A.U.C. 

Dido  and  the  Hide.  — The  story  of  Dido  win- 
ning land  at  Carthage  by  cutting  oxhides  into  strij^s 
and  thus  enclosing  a  considerable  space  arises  from 
the  misinterpretation  of  the  word  byrsa,  a  Greek 
mispronunciation  of  the  Semitic  bircihd,  a  citadel. 
The  story  reappears  in  connection  with  many  cities 
and  castles,  even  as  late  as  the  eleventh  century, 
when  Hasan  ben  Sabah  in  this  way  is  said  to  have 
secured  the  castle  of  Alamut  in  Northern  Persia, 
where  he  established  himself  as  the  Sheikh  ul  Jebal, 
the  Head  of  the  Assassins. 

Opigin  of  the  Irish.  —  The  legend  that  the  Irish 
are  of  Phoenician  origin  is  said  to  have  arisen  from 
the  similarity  of  sound  in  the  Irish  \\0Ydfena,  plural 
Jion,  beautiful,  agreeable. 

Diogenes'  Tub  a  Myth.  —  The  same  year  that 
Alexander  died  at  Babylon  Diogenes  died  at  Corinth, 
323  B.C. ;  but  not  in  a  tub,  because  he  never  lived 
in  one.  The  story  originated  in  a  comment  by  his 
biographer,  Seneca,  who  was  not  born  till  more  than 
three  hund-i-ed  years  after  the  cynic's  death:  "A 
man  so  crabbed  ought  to  have  lived  in  a  tub  like  a 
dog." 

iEsop's  Fables.  —  The  story  of  ^sop  the  lame 
slave  who  is  commonly  reputed  to  be  the  author  of 
the  fables  is  much  involved  in  legend.  He  was 
very  probably  not  a  historical  personage.     Many  if 


MISTAKES    IN    ANCIENT    HISTORY.  97 

not  all  of  his  fables  are  of  more  ancient  date.  Miss 
Amelia  B.  Edwards  says  :  "  Some  of  the  fables  at- 
tributed to  him  are  drawn  from  Egyptian  sources 
older  by  eight  hundred  years  than  the  famous 
dwarf  who  is  supposed  to  have  invented  them.  The 
fable  of  the  '  Lion  and  the  Mouse '  was  discovered 
by  Dr.  Brugsch  in  an  Egyptian  papyrus  a  few  years 
ago.  '  The  Dispute  of  the  Stomach  and  the  Mem- 
bers '  has  been  yet  more  recently  identified  by  Pro- 
fessor Maspero  with  an  ancient  Egyptian  original." 

Seneca  a  Usuper.  —  Seneca  .was  not  the  half- 
Christian  philosopher  of  whose  virtues  we  are  often 
told,  but  a  grasping  usurer  who  died  worth  over 
$3,000,000.  Nor  was  Ca3sar  Augustus  a  public 
benefactor :  he  was  the  most  exacting  tax  collector 
of  history. 

The  Hannibal  Fable.— In  216  B.C.  Hannibal 
with  about  50,000  men  nearly  annihilated  the 
Roman  army  of  about  90,000  at  Canna3,  in  Apulia, 
Italy ;  but  it  is  all  a  fable  to  say  that  he  sent 
back  to  Carthage  as  evidence  of  his  victory  three 
bushels  of  gold  rings  plucked  from  the  hands  of 
dead  Roman  knights.  The  messenger  that  carried 
the  news  to  the  Carthaginian  Senate,  on  concluding 
his  report,  "  opened  his  robe  and  threw  out  a  num- 
ber of  gold  rings  gathered  on  the  field  of  battle." 

The  Colossus  of  Rhodes.  —  There  is  no  prob- 
ability that  such  a  statue  as  is  usually  represented 
in  pictures  as  straddling  the  entrance  to  the  port 
of  Rhodes  ever  existed. 


98  thp:  mistakes  we  make. 

Words  falsely  attributed  to  Caesar.  —  There 
is  no  historical  foundation  for  the  story  that  when 
Csesar  in  49  B.C.  reached  the  Rubicon  lie  communed 
with  himself,  saying  in  effect :  "  There  is  still  time 
to  turn  back ;  one  step  further  and  civil  war  breaks 
forth  ; "  then,  taking  a  sudden  resolution,  he  marched 
forward,  exclaiming,  "  Aleajacta  est .'  "  "  The  die 
is  cast !  "  "He  plunged,  he  crossed,  and  Rome  was 
free  no  more."  Moreover,  the  Rubicon  lay  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  Italian  peninsula  from  where 
he  entered  Italy.  .Neither  did  Cassar  exclaim,  ''  Et 
iu.  Brute!''''  when  he  was  assassinated  March  15,  44 
B.C.  Suetonia  says  Caesar  drew  a  deep  sigh,  but 
said  not  a  word. 

Lies  about  Cleopatra.  —  Cleopatra  killed  her- 
self, 30  B.C.,  to  avoid  being  exhibited  at  Rome  in 
the  triumph  of  Octavius,  who  had  made  war  upon 
her  and  Antony  because  the  latter  had  divorced  his 
(Octavius')  sister  on  the  queen's  account.  But  did 
she  die  from  the  bite  of  an  asp  ?  Rawlinson  argues 
against  it  in  his  "  Ilerod  II.":  "If  her  death  had 
been  caused  by  any  serpent,  the  small  viper  would 
rather  have  been  chosen  than  the  large  asp  ;  but  the 
story  is  disproved  by  her  having  decked  herself  in 
*  the  royal  ornaments,"'  and  being  found  dead  '  with- 
out any  marks  of  suspicion  of  ^^oison  on  her  body.' " 

Death  from  a  serpent's  bite  could  not  have  been 
mistaken,  and  her  vanity  would  not  have  allo^t-ed 
her  to  choose  one  which  would  have  disfigured  her 
so  frightfully. 


MISTAKES    IN    ANCIENT    HISTORY.  99 

No  boy  would  have  ventured  to  carry  an  asp  in  a 
basket  of  figs,  some  of  which  he  offered  to  the 
guards  as  he  passed.  Even  Plutarch  shows  that 
the  story  of  the  asp  was  doubted.  Nor  is  the  fact 
that  the  statue  carried  in  Augustus'  triumph  had  an 
asp  upon  it  any  proof  of  his  belief  in  it,  since  the 
snake  was  the  emblem  of  Egyptian  royalty.  The 
statue  (or  the  crown)  of  Cleopatra  could  not  have 
been  without  one,  and  this  was  probably  the  origin 
of  the  whole  story. 

Who  has  not  heard  of  Cleopatra's  pearl  which, 
at  a  banquet  given  in  Antony's  honor,  she  dissolved 
in  vinegar?  Either  this  story  also  is  fictitious,  or 
vinegar  was  different  in  those  days  from  the  present- 
day  kind,  which  will  not  melt  pearls ;  nor  will  it 
split  rocks,  as  it  is  made  to  do  in  the  story  of  "  Han- 
nibal crossing  the  Alps." 

Nero  not  such  a  Bad  Fellow.  —  Another  royal 
suicide  was  the  Emperor  Nero,  who  stabbed  himself 
68  A.D.  He  Avas  not  quite  so  bad  a  monster  as 
the  author  of  "  Quo  Vadis"  would  have  us  imagine. 
His  mother,  Agrippina,  was  not  put  to  death  by  his 
order,  nor  did  he  play  on  his  harp,  and  sing  "The 
Burning  of  Troy"  while  Rome  was  on  fire. 

Our  knowledge  of  him  is  gained  mostly  from 
Tacitus,  who  hated  him,  and  from  Petronius  Arbi- 
ter, who  was  put  to  death  for  conspiracy  against 
him.  Hodgkin,  in  "  Italy  and  her  Invaders,"  says  : 
"  Even  in  Rome  itself  the  common  people  strewed 
flowers  on  the  grave  of  Nero." 


100  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE   MISTAKES    WE    MAKE    IN    RELIGIOUS    HISTORY. 

Israelites  did  not  exterminate  the  Canaan- 
ites.  —  It  is  a  common  belief,  but  erroneous, 
that  the  Israelites  exterminated  the  Canaanites. 
The  Israelites,  by  force  of  arms,  were  a  domi- 
nant caste,  and  ruled  over  the  more  civilized 
Canaanites. 

Moses  had  no  Horn.  — The  Hebrew  for  "  shone  " 
is  qdran,  to  emit  rays;  for  a  horn,  is  qeren.  The 
early  translators  confused  the  two  by  translating  the 
passage  in  Exodus  describing  Moses  on  his  descent 
from  Sinai  Sisfacies  cornuta,  "  his  face  was  horned," 
instead  of  "his  face  shone."  Hence  artists  have 
represented  Moses  with  a  liorn,  as  if  it  referred  to 
his  power  symbolized. 

Christ  was  born  4  B.C.  —  Through  the  erro- 
neous time  fixed  by  the  calculations  of  Dionysius, 
the  date  generally"  assigned  for  the  nati\'ity  of  our 
Lord  is  at  least  four  years  later  than  it  should  be. 
It  must  have  preceded  the  death  of  Herod,  who 
died  four  years  before  the  beginning  of  the  Chris- 
tian era.  After  giving  data  upon  which  the  later 
computation  is  founded,  Farrar,  in  his  "  Life  of 
Christ,"  adds:    "Under  no    circumstances   can   it 


MISTAKES    IN    RELIGIOUS    HISTORY.        101 

have  taken  place  later  than  February,  B.C.  4."  So 
that  instead  of  this  being  the  year  1898,  we  should 
sign  our  letters  1902. 

The  Wise  Men  of  the  East.  —  In  early  Chris- 
tian art  few  subjects  have  been  often er  painted 
than  the  worship  of  the  infant  Saviour  at  Bethle- 
hem by  the  wise  men  or  "  kings."  ^ 

In  these  early  representations,  and  those  of  the 
Roman  catacombs,  the  number  of  Magi  varies,  and 
when  the  words  of  St.  Matthew  are  Oiterally  fol- 
lowed there  are  no  signs  of  royalty.  In  one  paint- 
ing there  are  four,  in  another  —  in  the  chapel  of  S. 
Pietro  e  S.  Marcellino  —  only  two  are  shown.  There 
is  no  biblical  authority  for  fixing  an}^  number  at  all 
to  theMagi  of  the  gospel  narrative.  St.  Matthew,  the 
only  evangelist  who  mentions  them,  says:  "  There 
came  wise  men  from  tlie  east  to  Jerusalem."  The 
idea  that  they  were  three  in  number  no  doubt  is 
founded  upon  the  three  kinds  of  gifts  they  offered  — 
gold,  frankincense,  and  myrrh  ;  at  least  this  was  the 
teaching  of  St.  Augustine.  It  may  also  have  some 
mystical  connection  with  the  idea  of  the  Trinity. 

The  First  Easter.  —  It  is  sometimes  said  that 
the  first  Easter  was  in  the  spring  of  the  year  29  of 
our  era.  The  crucifixion  took  place  on  the  7th  of 
April  of  the  Julian  year,  or  the  5th  of  AjDril  ac- 
cording to  the  Gregorian  reckoning,  in  30  A.D. 

1  Psalm  Lxxii.,  10, 11.  "  The  kings  of  Tarshish  and  of  the  isles 
shall  bring  presents :  the  kings  of  Sheba  and  Seba  shall  offer 
gifts."    Recited  by  Roman  Catholics  on  the  Feast  of  Epiphany. 


102  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Belial  was  the  Father  of  no  Sons.  —  The  ex- 
pression sons  of  Belial,  or  children  of  Belial,  with 
the  marginal  rendering  "  naughty  men,"  gives 
readers  of  the  Bible  the  impression  that  Belial  was 
a  person  or  a  god.  It  is  really  a  Hebrew  word 
meaning  useless,  hence  "good  for  nothing." 

Mapy  Magdalene.  —  Many  persons,  without  any 
justification,  identif}^  the  woman  taken  in  adultery, 
as  related  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  St.  John,  with 
Mary  Magdalene,  of  whom  nothing  is  known  more 
than  that  seven  devils  were  cast  out  of  her  (Luke 
VIII.,  2)  ;  that  she  was  present  at  Jesus*  execution 
(Matthew  xxvii.,  56)  ;  and  that  Christ  appeared 
first  to  her  (Matthew  xxviii.,  1).  The  term 
Magdalen,  therefore,  as  applied  to  a  fallen  woman 
is  an  unjust  stigma. 

The  Athanasian  Creed.  — The  "Athanasian" 
Creed  is  not  the  production  of  the  Alexandrian 
bishop  whose  name  it  bears,  though  it  correctly 
expresses  his  doctrines.  The  original  was  written 
in  Latin,  not,  as  it  would  have  been,  in  Greek,  had 
Athanasius  written  it;  in  fact,  it  was  entirely  un- 
known in  the  language  of  the  Greek  Church  up  to 
the  tenth  century,  and  even  in  Latin  did  not  appear 
before  the  end  of  the  eighth  century,  whereas 
Athanasius  lived  in  the  fourth. 

The  Opigin  of  the  Papacy.  —  Roman  Catholic 
controversialists  urge  that  the  Papacy  was  created 
by  the  Founder  of  Christianity ;  Protestant  prej- 
udices attribute  it  to  designing  priests.     Its  growth 


MISTAKES    IN    RELIGIOUS    HISTORY.        103 

was  rather  the  inevitable  product  of  mediaeval  con- 
ditions. Ferdinand  Gregoroviiis,  in  his  "  History  of 
the  City  of  Rome  in  the  Middle  Ages/'  points  out 
the  fact  that  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  the  one  rally- 
ing-point  in  a  world  of  confusion,  the  one  centre  of 
order  amid  chaos,  the  one  central  light  in  a  night  of 
darkness.  After  describing  the  final  sacking  of  the 
city  of  Rome  he  says:  "Classical  civilization  per- 
ished in  Rome  and  throughout  Italy.  In  cities 
burnt,  desolated,  and  mutilated,  ruins  remained  the 
sole  evidences  of  former  splendor.  The  night  of 
barbarism  had  descended  on  the  Latin  world,  a 
darkness  in  which  no  light  was  visible  other  than 
that  of  the  tapers  of  the  church  and  the  lonely  stu- 
dent lamp  of  the  monk  brooding  in  his  cloister." 

Barbarians  swarmed  over  Italy  ;  the  scat  of  empire 
was  transferred  to  Byzantium  ;  the  Exarchate  of 
Ravenna,  which  represented  imperial  rule  in  Italy, 
was  powerless  to  stem  the  torrent  of  anarchy,  and 
the  ancient  Roman  Curia  had  perished.  No  author- 
ity remained  save  that  which  rested  in  the  person 
of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  whose  see  thus  gradually 
became  the  one  object  of  obedience  and  highest 
veneration  throughout  Western  Christendom,  and 
who,  therefore,  naturally  became  the  head  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Church.  That  power  was  more  firmly 
secured  by  temporal  possessions,  partly  gifts  to  the 
Roman  see,  and  partly  territories  acquired  by 
diplomacy  of  the  bishops  when  popes.  By  the  end 
of  the  eighth   century  the  Temporal  Power  was 


104  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

estiiblislied  largely  by  the  reciprocal  aid  of  one  of 
the  world's  most  noted  rulers  —  the  emperor  of 
tlie  German  Western  Empire,  Charles   the   Great. 

Is  the  Pope  Infallible  ?  —  In  calling  the  pope 
infallible  Roman  Catholics  mean  that  God  preserves 
him  from  erring  in  expounding  Holy  Scripture,  and 
in  teaching  points  of  faith  or  of  morals,  when  he 
does  all  this  ex  cathedra.  The  Pope  is  not  regarded 
as  impeccable  ;  that  is,  preserved  from  sinning.  In 
a  somewhat  like  manner  in  civil  matters  a  judge 
may  be  blamable  in  his  private  life,  and  yet  eminent 
and  faultless  in  his  official  duty  of  deciding  points 
of  civil  law. 

"Saint"  and  "Holy."  —  The  famous  mosque 
^t  Constantinople  was  not  called  so  for  any  "  saint" 
of  the  name  of  ' '  Sophia."  The  church  was  originally 
dedicated  by  Constantino  the  Great  to  '*  sacred  or 
holy  wisdom,"  Hagia  Sophia ;  that  is,  to  Christ,  as  the 
personified  wisdom  of  God.  Among  other  instances 
where  "  Saint"  does  not  mean  "  saint,"  but  *'  holy," 
we  have  St.  Sepulchre,  Protestant  churches  at  Lon- 
don and  Cambridge,  St.  Croix  River  in  Wisconsin, 
and  Sainte  Chapelle  at  Paris,  built  by  St.  Louis  to 
receive  and  enshrine  the  crown  of  thorns.  St. 
Mary,  when  used  for  Roman  Catholic  churches, 
means  "Holy"  Mary,  as  the  reverence  there  paid 
her  is"  much  greater  than  the  word  "saint"  would 
imply. 

Auto  de  fe.  —  The  first  auto  de  fe  was  at  Yalla- 
dolid  in  May,  1559,  and  was  witnessed   by  Philip 


MISTAKES    IN    RELIGIOUS    HISTORY.        105 

II.,  the  Prince  of  the  Asturias.  Another  took  place 
in  Seville,  Dec.  22,  1560 ;  thirteen  were  burnt  to 
death,  four  in  effigy.  It  is  a  mistake  to  use  the 
particle  da  or  to  put  an  acute  accent  over  fe.  The 
words   are  Spanish,  and  signify  act  of  faith. 

No  Woman  was  ever  Pope.  —  A  story  was  at 
one  time  popularly  believed,  that  a  beautiful  and 
learned  German  woman  named  Joanna,  born  at 
Mayence  or  Ingelheim,  fell  in  love  with  a  recreant 
monk,  and  escaping  with  him  in  man's  attire  trav- 
elled through  France,  Italy,  and  Greece.  After  the 
lover  died  in  Athens,  Joanna  came  to  Rome,  and, 
still  keeping  up  the  fiction  of  her  assumed  sex 
under  the  name  of  Angelicas,  established  a  school 
there.  After  the  death  of  Pope  Leo  IV.  in  855, 
she  was  unanimously  elected  pope  and  took  the 
appellation  of  Johann  VIII.  Her  rule  was,  after 
two  years  and  six  months,  interrupted  by  a  scandal ; 
an  angel  appeared  to  her  and  offered  her  the  choice 
of  being  damned  in  the  next  world  or  acknowl- 
edging her  transgression  in  this.  She  accordingly 
joined  in  a  procession,  was  taken  with  the  pangs 
of  child-birth  on  the  way  between  the  Coliseum 
and  the  Chapel  of  St.  Clement,  and  died,  and  was 
buried  without  any  honors,  after  a  pontificate  of 
nearly  two  years  and  a  half ;  and  on  the  spot  a 
chapel  was  erected  which  succeeding  popes  always 
avoided.  The  first  historian  to  mention  this  fable 
was  Marianus  Scotus,  but  others  made  capital  of  it. 
Of  course  as  Leo  IV.  died  July  17,  855,  and  Bene- 


106  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

diet  III.  succeeded  him,  reigning  till  858,  there 
could  have  been  no  place  for  Joanna.  The  cere- 
mony of  the  sedia  siercoraria  from  which  the  story 
may  have  arisen  was  discontinued  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  Some  attribute  the  rise  of  the  story 
to  the  effeminacy  or  licentiousness  of  Pope  John 
XTI.,  who  was  killed  in  964  while  prosecuting  a 
conspiracy  against  the  Emperor  of  Germany, 
Otto  I. 

Nuns  were  never  "walled  up."  — Despite  the 
fate  of  Constance  de  Beverly,  as  depicted  in  Scott's 
"Marmion,"  monks  and  nuns  have  never  been 
walled  up  alive,  as  many  still  believe,  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  The  word  murus,  a  wall,  used  as 
a  substantive  in  mediaeval  Latin  and  all  the  deriva- 
tive tongues,  signified  prison,  and  murato,  ])ut  in 
walls,  did  not  necessarily  mean  walled  up,  any 
more  than  immured  means  walled  up  in  England. 

Mr.  Rider  Haggard,  in  his  novel  "  Montezuma's 
Daughter,"  has  confessed  that,  even  if  the  taking 
of  the  life  of  a  nun  for  a  grave  moral  transgression 
might  be  conceivably  defended  as  an  act  of  judicial 
authority,  there  is  no  proof  that  such  a  barbarous 
punishment  was  ever  enforced.  Tliere  was  a  time 
when  foundations  were  actually  laid  with  the  sacri- 
ficial blood  and  other  remains  of  human  bodies. 
From  this  circumstance  originated  the  superstition 
that  to  secure  the  permanence  of  bridges,  castles,  and 
other  great  structures,  it  was  necessary  to  buikl  uji 
the  body  of  a  live  child  or  maiden  in  the  foundations. 


MISTAKES    TX    RELIGIOUS    HISTORY.         107 

This  belief  has  survived  for  many  centuries  in 
Europe,  and  was  invoked  to  account  for  every 
skeleton  found  in  an  unusual  part  of  any  religious 
or  other  old  building. 

Helena  not  a  Briton.  — The  story  that  Helena, 
the  mother  of  Constantino  the  Great,  and  the  col- 
lector of  so  many  Christian  relics,  was  a  British 
lady  rests  on  no  good  authority.  There  is  good 
reason  to  believe  that  she  was  really  the  daughter 
of  an  innkeeper  at  Antioch. 

Dives  not  a  Propep  Name. — The  name 
"Dives"  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  the 
surname  of  the  rich  man  at  whose  door  Lazarus 
lay,  and  is  therefore  improperly  printed  with  a  capi- 
tal "  D."  There  is  no  such  name  in  Scripture. 
The  painted  representation  of  this  parable  was  a 
favorite  with  the  monks,  and  under  it  they  in- 
scribed in  hsiiin,, Dives  (the  rich  man)  et  Lazarus, 
hence  the  misapprehension.  The  correct  pronun- 
ciation of  this  name  is  di-ves,  not  dives. 

Papsis  not  Fipe-wopshippeps.  —  The  Parsi  is 
unjustly  called  a  fire-worshipper.  Yet  to  him  fire  is 
but  the  emblem  of  the  power  of  God,  whom  he  wor- 
ships as  devoutly  as  Christians  do  the  God  of  the 
Bible.  The  name  Parsi  is  only  another  form  of  Farsi 
or  Persian,  and  is  borne  by  the  descendants  of  those 
who  at  the  ]\Iuhammadan  Conquest  took  the  relig- 
ion of  Zoroaster  (Zarathustra)  down  into  India. 

Juggernaut  not  a  Fetish.  —  It  has  been  told 
that  the  worshijjpers  of  Juggernaut  throw  them- 


108  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

selves  under  the  wheels  of  the  car  by  the  score,  in 
the  belief  that  they  will  thus  obtain  eternal  salva- 
tion. The  car  is  taken  out  only  about  once  in 
thirty  years,  and  the  deaths  which  the  old  missionary 
stories  and  pictures  so  exaggerated  were  generally 
accidental.  The  two  or  three  exceptional  victims 
of  self-immolation  chose  this  manner  of  death  to 
free  themselves  from  excruciating  complaints. 
Even  in  the  last  reincarnation  year  of  Juggernaut 
(1893),  with  every  precaution,  accidents  Avere 
barely  avoided,  but  in  old  days  Avith  no  police 
this  was  impossible. 

Savonarola  not  the  Preeupsor  of  Protestant- 
ism. —  Savonarola  was  a  contemporary  of  Colum- 
bus. Popular  histories,  text-books,  and  the  like, 
often  call  him  "  among  the  leaders  of  the  Reforma- 
tion," or  say  that  "he  was  a  harbinger  of  the 
Reformation,"  or  that  he  is  "  rigktly  called  a  pre- 
cursor of  Protestantism."  It  Avould  be  very  easy  to 
pile  up  instance  upon  instance  of  this  ignorance, 
this  misunderstanding  of  the  great  reformer's 
work. 

Savonarola's  life  and  words  preclude  the  idea  that 
he  was  a  "  harbinger"  of  the  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion. But  he  was  a  "great  reformer"  of  the  evil 
lives  of  men  in  high  places.  Like  Nehemiah,  he 
preached  against  abuses.  Yet  Savonarola's  own 
works  show  that  he  would  have  regarded  the  six- 
teenth century  Reformation  as  an  act  of  apostasy. 
As  to  his  contempt  for  the  reformers  with  whom  he 


MISTAKES    IN    RELIGIOUS    HISTORY.         109 

is  SO  frequently  ticketed,  how  do  we  find  him  in 
every  page  of  his  liistory  ?  Saying  mass,  believing 
in  transubstantiation,  devoted  to  the  Virgin,  duti- 
fully submitting  to  the  rules  of  his  order,  and  par- 
ticipating in  all  the  ceremonies  of  the  Roman 
Chureli  as  they  are  performed  to-day,  and,  unlike 
Martin  Luther  of  the  next  half  century,  keeping  his 
religious  vows  till  his  death.  He  Avas  disobedient 
to  the  Pope,  but  his  disobedience  was  through  mis- 
apprehension, and  therefore  can  hardly  be  called 
heretical. 

Muhammad  was  not  a  Miracle- worker.  — 
The  Christian's  notion  of  Muhammad  the  Prophet 
of  Islam  is  that  he  was  an  impostor  and  fanatic. 
The  most  curious  thing  about  him  is  that  he  him- 
self never  claimed  an}^  supernatural  powers,  and 
that  the  attribute  of  miracles  to  the  prophet  is  not 
warranted  by  the  Koran. 

jNIoreover,  the  earliest  life  of  Muhammad  makes 
very  little  mention  of  miracles,  and  all  those  which 
are  associated  with  his  name  are  the  creation  of 
later  biographers,  who  accurately  gauged  the  taste 
for  sensational  details. 

The  Kingdom  of  Prester  John.  —  The  legend 
of  a  Christian  sovereign  called  Prester  or  Presbyter 
Johannes,  ruling  in  Central  Asia,  grew  out  of  a 
name.  It  may  have  been  Bahram  Gur ;  or  a  chief 
named  Gur  Khan  (meaning  universal  Khan),  which 
was  twisted  into  Yurkhan  and  Juchanan,  hence 
Johannes.     Other  writers    have   tried   to   find   the 


110  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

origin  of  the  m^-th  in  John  Orbelian  of  Georgia. 
Probably  some  rumor  of  Jenghis  Khan  was  founda- 
tion for  the  story,  which  is  attributed  to  the  Bishop 
of  Gabala. 

St.  Augustine  did  not  introduce  Christianity 
into  England.  —  Many  persons  confuse  St. 
Augustine,  the  first  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
about  600,  with  St.  Augustine,  the  celebrated 
Father  of  the  Latin  Church,  who  died  430,  and 
believe  that  the  author  of  the  celebrated  confessions 
introduced  Christianity  into  England.  There  had 
been  fifteen  archbishops  of  London  before  then  ; 
and  —  to  say  nothing  about  the  primitive  churches 
of  Ireland  and  Scotland  —  there  were  three  sees, 
with  cathedrals,  in  the  province  of  Caerleon,  or 
Wales,  before  Augustine  saw  the  white  cliffs  of 
Albion.  Ba3da  said  that  Ethelbert  gave  Augustine 
and  his  people,  on  his  conversion,  power  to  restore 
the  churches.  The  word  restore  implies  their  pre- 
vious existence.  Was  there  an  accidental  Christian 
colony  in  Canterbury,  or  was  there  a  British  Chris- 
tian Church  before  the  Saxons  came? 

Bpuno  was  not  burnt  Alive.  —  In  1587  the 
philosopher,  Giordano  Bruno,  was  lecturing  at  the 
University  of  Wittenberg.  About  his  death  there 
is  a  very  common  error.  Flammarion  in  his  "  Pop- 
ular Astronomy,"  1894,  still  further  spreads  it.  It 
is  to  the  effect  that  Bruno  "was  burned  alive  at 
Rome  before  the  terrified  people,"  because  he 
asserted  the  stars  to  be  the  centres  of  other  systems. 


MISTAKES    IN    KELIGTOUS    HISTORY.         Ill 

The  charge  laid  against  Bruno  was  not  the  one 
mentioned ;  and  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether 
he  met  with  scientific  martyrdom  at  all,  the  sole 
evidence  of  his  execution  being  a  letter  of  Sciopj^ius, 
the  genuineness  of  which  has  been  seriously  called 
to  question  by  Professor  Desdouits. 

It  is  certain  that  he  left  Italy  to  avoid  the  conse- 
quences of  publicly  denouncing  the  doctrines  of 
transubstantiation  and  of  the  immaculate  concep- 
tion, and  that  on  his  return  to  Naples,  some  years 
later,  he  was  arrested  by  order  of  the  Inquisition, 
as  an  unbeliever,  and  especially  as  being  the  author 
of  "  The  Expulsion  of  the  Triumphant  Beast," 
"  Spaccio  della  bestia  Trionfante,"  written  in 
London  while  under  the  protection  of  the  French 
Ambassador,  J584. 

The  "Italian  missionary"  (as  Dean  Hook  calls 
St.  Augustine)  found  himself  in  conflict  with  the 
British  bishops  almost  as  soon  as  he  landed.  And 
his  failure  to  bring  the  British  church  into  union 
with  that  of  Canterbury  was  lamentable. 

Mr.  Newel,  after  examining  various  hypotheses, 
is  inclined  to  trace  British  Christianity  to  a  Galilean 
origin.  Christianity  was  founded  in  these  islands 
toward  the  close  of  the  second  and  the  beginning  of 
the  third  centuries,  and  was  probably  brought  from 
the  Rhone  Valley  after  the  persecution  of  the  year 
177.  Some  of  the  persecuted  Gallican  Christians 
fled  through  Aries  and  Lyons  to  Britain.  "In  de- 
fault of  genuine  tradition,"  writes  Mr.  Newel,  "  re- 


112  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

specting  the  origin  of  the  British  church,  it  appears 
most  probable  that  the  Christian  missionaries  came 
that  way  from  the  churches  of  the  Rhone  Valley  to 
Britain." 

Cantepbupy  is  not  the  Fipst  Chpistian  Chupeh 
in  England.  —  Canterbury  is  not  "the  first  Chris- 
tian Church  in  England."  The  honor  belongs 
rather  to  (jlastonbury,  the  vetusia  ecclesia  —  the 
wicker  church  —  founded  by  St.  Patrick,  the  apostle 
of  Ireland,  more  than  a  century  before  Pope  Greg- 
ory sent  missionaries  to  those  whom  he  declared  to 
be  '*  71071  Angli  sed  Angeli.'''' 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  113 


CHAPTER    X. 

MISTAKES  IN   ENGLISH   HISTORY. 

We  are  not  descended  from  the  Celts.  — The 

ancient  Britons  are  usually  called  Celts  or  Kelts, 
but  tlie  ancient  Kelts  probably  never  came  into 
Briton  at  all.  Their  peculiar  skulls  are  not  found 
there  either  in  river-bed  or  barrow.  Northern 
Europe  was  represented  by  the  ancients  as  occupied 
by  the  Celts  —  the  Western  people  —  and  the  Scythi- 
ans —  the  Eastern  people.  The  Rhine  came  to  be 
considered  the  eastern  frontier  of  the  Celts,  and 
Celtica,  in  the  time  of  Caesar,  was  called  Gaul. 
The  British  Islands  were  never  included  in  the 
term,  and  were  distinctly  stated  to  be  outside  of 
and  "  opposite  "  Celtica.  Csesar  refers  to  the  Celtae 
as  a  definite  race  occupying  central  France. 

Wherefore  the  term  "  Kelt"  should  be  applied  to 
the  Britons,  not  as  a  distinct  race,  but  as  a  people 
speaking  one  of  the  European  languages  which 
philologists  have  merely  for  convenience  chosen  to 
call  Keltic.^  The  Britons  of  pre-Roman  and  pre- 
Saxon  times  were  not  Kelts  because  they  spoke 
Keltic,  any  more  than  an  Indian  is  "Anglo-Saxon" 

1  Similarly  the  term  '*  Aryan  "  can  only  be  used  in  a  linguistic 


114  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

because  he  speaks  English.  If  language  were  a 
test  of  race,  it  would  be  quite  allowable  to  class  the 
Irish  of  Dublin  and  the  Shetland  folk  as  English. 

The  Piets  were  not  Painted.  —  Lord  Strang- 
ford  says:  "The  Picts  got  their  name  from  the 
Romans,  as  being  tattooed  distinct  from  the  clothed 
and  tamed  Britons."  An  English  Board  School 
"Historical  Reader"  says,  "but  the  Picts  —  the 
Painted  Men  —  came  pouring  in  over  the  old  Ro- 
man walls."  This  derivation  is  noticed  by  Claudian, 
who  speaks  of  the  Picts  as  nee  /also  nomine  Picti. 
All  the  early  Roman  and  Irish  chronicles  perpet- 
uate his  derivatio.n  of  the  word. 

It  is  taken  for  granted  that  because  the  Picts 
painted  or  stained  themselves,  their  name  means 
"the  painted."  The  Romans  could  scarcely  have 
used  it  in  specializing  one  tribe  in  the  north  of 
Britain,  while  at  a  much  earlier  date  they  M^ere 
familiar  with  the  custom  of  tattooing  practised 
by  other  tribes  in  the  south ;  therefore  the  south- 
ern Britons  ought  to  have  been  the  true  Picts. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  the  name  was  the  origi- 
nal tribal  name  j^eida  slightly  altered  in  the  mouths 
of  the  Romans,  and  meant  "  fighters,"  the  term 
being  traceable  to  the  Gaelic  peieta  or  the  Welsh 
-peith,  a  "fighting  man,"  —  a  root  related  to  tlie 
Latin  pugna.  Tliat  they  were  preeminent  fighters, 
of  huge  stature,  is  no  speculation,  but  a  historical 
fact  based  on  the  scanty  records  of  Roman  writers. 
And  of  the  invincible  Attacott  Picts  it  is  told  that, 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  115 

SO  valued  was  their  prowess,  they  were  drilled 
with  the  Roman  cohorts,  and  fonght  under  the  mas- 
terly lead  of  Kenneth  MacEdairn  for  the  Emperor 
Honorins. 

The  Britons  were  not  driven  into  Wales.— 
An  English  historical  reader,  following  the  iisnal 
statement,  declares  that  when  the  Anglo-Saxons 
conquered  Britain  "the  native  Britons,  or  Welsh, 
as  the  English  called  them,  were  driven  into 
Wales."  All  the  rest  were  killed.  This  theory 
of  extermination  and  expatriation  is  proved  by 
Professor  Huxley,  Dr.  Rolleston,  Dr.  Beddoe,  and 
other  competent  investigators   to  be  utterly  false. 

The  examination  of  burial  places  in  the  so-callecl 
**  Anglo-Saxon"  period  shows  that  the  Britons  and 
their  conquerors  continued  to  live  on  side  by  side ; 
and  the  modern  Englishman  shows  every  grada- 
tion of  type  which  would  be  produced  by  the  inter- 
marriage of  such  people  as  the  dark-haired,  long- 
headed Briton,  and  those  of  Roman  admixture, 
with  the  light-haired,  broad-headed  Saxon,  More- 
over we  are  expressly  told  in  the  English  "  Chron- 
icle "  that  the  lineage  of  the  Saxon  kinoes  and  the 
royal  families  of  the  Strathclyde  Britons  was  often 
blended. 

Our  "  Anglo-Saxon  "  ancestors  called  the  "  Kelts  " 
Wealas,  Welshmen  (the  singular  of  which  is 
wealh),  which  means  foreigners,  just  as  the 
Germans  call  Italy  Walschland.  Boeda  mentions 
how  the  Saxon  king,  Eadwine  of  York,  rendered 


116  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

most  of  the  Welsh  abbots  tributaries  to  his  race. 
William  of  Malmesbnry,  f om'  centuries  later,  can 
hardly  transcribe  in  his  classical  Latin  the  names 
of  Welsh  abbots,  "  because  they  smack  of  British 
barbarism."  Again  he  says:  "The  English  and 
Britons  joined  together  against  him  (Ceawlin),  and 
his  army  was  put  to  flight  at  Wodnesdic,"  which 
was  about  one  hundred  years  after  the  popular 
date  of  the  first  Saxon  settlement.  Besides,  as  the 
Angles  or  Saxons  took  at  least  four  hundred  years 
to  do  what  they  did,  and  appeared  only  after  long 
intervals,  without  any  semblance  to  concerted  action, 
it  must  have  been  physically  impossible  to  drive  the 
Britons  en  masse  into  the  Welsh  mountains ;  to 
admit  the  possibility  of  such  a  feat  is  to  credit  the 
invaders  with  the  ability  to  do  without  what  both 
the  earlier  Romans  and  the  later  Normans  found 
to  be  a  very  exacting  necessity,  namely,  dependence 
upon  the  conquered. 

Had  the  Britons  all  been  displaced,  the  names  of 
the  towns  would  have  disappeared  also ;  but  the 
most  ancient  cities  of  the  Roman  occupation  re- 
tained, and  still  retain,  their  Welsh  names  —  Col- 
chester, Winchester,  Worcester,  and  ,^n  immense 
number  of  others,  in  which  the  first  syllable,  the 
real  name,  is  unaltered,  and  the  second  is  merely 
an  Anglicized  form  of  the  Roman  castra.  Even 
Mr.  Freeman  admits  that  some  of  the  cities  may 
have  been  tributary  to  the  English  I'ather  than  occu- 
13ied  by  them. 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  117 

Again,  almost  every  English  river  where  the 
settlers  were  thickest  bears  a  British  name ;  and 
our  oldest  existing  documents  prove  that  when  the 
English  renamed  a  place,  that  name  was  contempo- 
raneous with  a  Welsh  one.  It  is  asked:  "If  the 
British  siH-vived  in  comparatively  large  numbers, 
why  is  our  language  wholly  a  Teutonic  tongue  ?  " 

The  most  plausible  answer  is:  "Consider  what 
language  the  Mashonas  will  speak  in  a  few  genera- 
tions ;  consider  whether  the  thousands  of  tourists 
who  visit  Wales  ever  trouble  to  learn  even  Welsh 
place  names ;  think  of  the  Englishman's  island  — 
Anglesey;  its  very  name  spells  annihilation,  and 
yet  it  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  population  still 
remains  essentially  Welsh." 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  preferable  to  believe  that 
when  the  English  colonized  Britain  they  enslaved 
rather  than  exterminated  the  mass  of  the  population. 

The  Saxons  did  not  land  when  the  Romans 
left.  —Historians  have  asserted  that  the  Saxons 
landed  in  Britain  after  the  Romans  had  left  it  unpro- 
tected. This  statement  conveys  a  false  impression. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  the  Saxon  tribes  had  settled 
on  the  maritime  parts  of  Britain  long  before  the 
landing  of  Caesar.  Else  it  cannot  be  understood 
how  the  Romans  should  have  met  with  such  stub- 
born resistance,  and  not  infrequent  reverses,  if 
the  defenders  had  as  weapons  only  the  clubs  of  the 
primitive  savages,  instead  of  the  superior  Saxon 
weapons. 


118  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

In  burial  grounds  dating  from  pre-Roman  times 
two  distinct  types  of  skull  are  found ;  the  short- 
headed  ones  are  accompanied  by  sujDerior  weapons. 
This  coincides  with  Cassar's  account.  He  says : 
"  The  natives  of  the  interior  were  indigenous,  and 
the  coast  people  —  totally  different  —  had  crossed 
over  from  the  neighborhood  of  Belgium." 

Tacitus,  writing  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
later,  gives  testimony  to  the  same  effect.  The  title 
"  Comes  Litoris  Saxonici,"  given  to  the  Roman 
governors  of  the  coast  tribes,  —  two  of  whom  are 
known  by  their  Germanic  names,  —  shows  that  the 
Romans  actually  found  it  expedient  to  prevent 
further  Saxon  immigrations. 

Pearson  ("History  of  England,"  I.,  6)  says: 
"  The  Saxons  of  the  fifth  century  seem  to  have 
found  a  kindred  people  already  established  in  East 
Anglia,  since  no  conquest  of  that  district  is  on 
record." 

The  English  are  not  an  Anglo-Saxon  People. 
—  Tennyson,  in  his  "  Welcome  to  Alexandra,"  says  : 

"  Saxon  and  Norman  and  Dane  are  we, 
But  all  of  us  Danes  in  our  welcome  of  thee." 

And  with  a  still  further  enlargement  of  the  idea  at 
the  end  of  the  poem : 

"  For  Saxon  or  Dane  or  Norman  we, 
Teuton  or  Celt,  or  whatever  we  be, 
We  are  each  all  Dane  in  our  welcome  of  thee, 
Alexandra." 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTOKY.  119 

The  term  "  Anglo-Saxon  "  is  frequently  applied 
to  the  EnHish,  but  the  Eno-lish  are  not  an  "  AnHo- 
Saxon,''  but  an  Anglo-British,  people.  The  Roman 
half-breed  and  the  pure  Briton  after  the  evacuation 
made  too  stout  a  resistance  to  be  effaced  by  the 
Saxons.  The  Roman  element  may  be  recognized  by 
its  influence  in  the  English  municipal  institutions ; 
in  not  a  few  towns,  such  as  London,  York,  Leices- 
ter, and  Exeter,  we  see  distinctly  that  the  Roman 
legacy  was  never  practically  broken. 

The  dominant  legal  and  religious  traditions 
remain  unbroken,  and  so  the  dominant  racial  ele- 
ment in  the  'British  Isles  to-da}"  is  not  Saxon,  but 
British,  or,  in  deference  to  popular  parlance,  Kel- 
tic. Considering  that  the  Angles  and  Saxons  were 
one  and  the  same  people,  it  would  be  well  to 
eliminate  one  of  the  names  —  "  Saxon,  "  for  pref- 
erence. Their  own  name  was  probably  "  Angles  ;  " 
"Saxon"  was  only  another  name  given  to  them 
by  the  Britons  as  a  common  expression  for 
any  invader.  The  Romans  in  Britain  always 
called  *'  Saxons"  those  people  whom  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  name  "Angles."  As  the  Angles  and 
Britons  became  blended,  the  two  words  became 
interchangeable,  and  Latin  writers  of  a  later  period, 
to  avoid  confusion,  naturally  wrote  Angli-Saxones. 

King  Alfred  did  not  burn  the  Cakes  or  enact 
Good  Laws.  —  The  story  that  King  Alfred 
allowed  the  cakes  to  burn,  or  that  he  ventured 
into  the  Danish  camp  disguised  as  a  minstrel,  has 


120  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

no  historical  foundation,  though  it  frequently  ap- 
pears in  books  written  for  children.  A  students^ 
history  states  that  he  enacted  good  laws.  The  Ox- 
ford Local  Examiners,  in  their  annual  report  for 
1894,  found  occasion  to  deplore  similar  misinfor- 
mation. The  fact  is  that  as  a  legislator  Alfred 
added  nothing  to  existing  laws,  but  simply  revised 
those  of  his  predecessors,  keeping  "  those  that 
seemed  to  him  good,"  rejecting  "  those  that  seemed 
to  him  not  good,"  and  combining  the  former  into 
a  single  code. 

Ethelred  not  Unready. —Ethelred's  epithet, 
"  Unready,"  had  not  the  modern  meaning,  unpre- 
pared, that  so  many  school-books  state,  but  referred 
to  the  king^s  indiflference  to  the  rede,  or  council,  of 
the  Witan. 

The  Battle  of  Hastings.  —  According  to  the 
English  "Historical  Review"  of  May,  1894,  the 
English  at  the  Battle  of  Hastings  in  1066  were  not 
protected  by  a  "■  palisade,"  and  therefore  the 
advance  and  the  feigned  flight  of  the  Norman 
infantry  were  not  for  the  purpose  of  forcing  this 
alleged  palisade,  but  solely  to  tempt  the  English 
to  break  their  ranks. 

The  *' Conqueror's "  Title.  — William  I.  did 
not  owe  his  title  of  the  "  Conqueror"  to  this  victory. 
He  was,  in  fact,  not  transformed  into  a  "  con- 
queror"  till  some  years  later —  not  till  all  hopes  of 
English  freedom  had  died  in  the  surrender  of  Ely 
in  1071.     Not  even  then  was  he  a  conqueror  in  the 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  121 

ordinary  sense,  for  he  came  only  to  assert  his  rights 
bequeathed  to  him,  as  was  the  custom  in  those  days, 
by  Edward  the  Confessor. 

He  did  not  lay  Nopthern  England  waste.— 
The  dreadful  chastisement  following  the  Northern 
English  resistance  to  the  Normans  in  1069,  and 
repeated  in  every  school-book,  is  undoubtedly  an 
exao^geration.  We  read  that  "  With  fire  and  sword 
he  [the  Conqueror]  took  a  revenge  so  terrible  that 
from  the  Ilumber  to  the  Tyne  there  stretched  for 
almost  a  century  a  vast  desolate  waste  unbroken  by 
the  plough."  Prof essor  Freeman  says,  in  '*  The  Nor- 
man Conquest  of  England,"  "The  revenge  grew 
in  the  narratives  of  later  writers  into  a  pitiless  lay- 
ing waste  of  all  Northern  England,  into  a  clearance 
from  this  region  of  every  form  of  life.  From  this 
representation  we  may  withhold  our  belief  till 
evidence  sufficient  to  establish  so  comprehensive  a 
crime  be  produced." 

Rufus  was  not  shot  by  an  Arrow.  —  The  Con- 
queror's son  Rufus  —  the  greedy,  the  merciless,  the 
iiTeligious,  the  hated  oppressor  of  all  classes  — 
was  not  shot  accidentally  by  an  arrow  from  the  bow 
of  Walter  TyrreL  He  was  assassinated.  His  body 
bore  the  marks  of  three  or  four  sword-thrusts. 
Almost  all  the  authorities  of  his  time  called  Tyrrel 
the  "murderer,"  and  the  fact  that  he  immediately 
fled  across  the  sea  is  strong  presumptive  evidence. 
Some  authorities  opine  that  his  younger  brother, 
Henry,  who  was  in  the  New  Forest  at  the  time,  was 


122  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

the  instigator  of  the  crime,  arguing  that  William 
Rufus  had  despoiled  Henry  ;  the  Church  and  barons 
were  suffering  from  his  violent  extortions,  and 
longing  for  speedy  relief;  the  eldest  brother, 
Robert,  the  rightful  heir,  was  opportunely  away  in 
the  crusades ;  Henry,  on  hearing  the  news,  reached 
Winchester,  in  all  haste  seized  the  treasure,  and  put 
forward  the  lavish  jDromises  that  secured  him  the 
crown  (1100). 

Henry  I.  did  not  die  of  Gluttony.  — It  is  com- 
Hionly  said  of  this  Henry  that  his  death  was  caused 
by  his  gluttonous  love  of  lampreys.  The  accusa- 
tion is  not  a  just  one,  because  the  truth  is  that  the 
lamprey's  skin,  like  the  skin  and  roe  of  other  fish, 
is  poisonous  when  eaten  at  certain  times.  One  may 
as  well  bring  the  charge  of  gluttony  against  those 
suffering  through  the  sometimes  deleterious  oyster. 

The  Plantagenets.  —  The  new  line  of  kings 
beginning  with  Henry  II.  (1154)  did  not  know  the 
title  under  which  it  is  usual  to  recognize'them,  the 
"  Plantagenets,"  a  title  derived  from  ^j/an/a  genes- 
ta,  the  broom-plant ;  at  least  it  is  not  on  record 
that  any  sovereign  ever  used  that  name.  It  is  more 
correct  to  style  them  the  Angevins,  from  Geoffrey  ' 
of  Anjou,  the  father  of  the  first  of  this  line.     He 

1  It  is  doubtful  whether  this  custom  of  Geoffrey  was  to  indicate 
a  love  of  field  sports,  or  to  shew  that  he  was  not  ashamed  to 
acknowledge  the  humble  founder  of  the  House  of  Anjou,  —  a 
woodman  of  Rennes,  —  or  to  ward  off  the  machinations  of  witch- 
craft. 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  123 

was  the  only  one  who  is  certainly  known  to  have 
worn  a  sprig  of  broom  in  his  cap. 

Henry  II.  did  not  conceal  Fair  Rosamond.  — 
There  is  no  truth  in  the  popular  legend  that  says 
that  this  king  built  a  labyrinth  to  conceal  his  mis- 
tress, the  "Fair  Rosamond''  Clifford,  from  Queen 
Eleanor,  who  discovered  her  by  means  of  a  silken 
thread.  The  fact  is  that  Henry,  instead  of  conceal- 
ing her,  publicly  acknowledged  her.  Indeed,  it 
would  have  been  quite  an  extraordinary  exception 
to  the  State  and  Church  practices  of  those  days  to 
have  done  otherwise. 

Neither  was  "  Fair  Rosamond  "  poisoned  by  the 
queen,  for  she  died  in  the  Convent  of  Godstow, 
where  she  long  resided  as  a  nun,  much  esteemed  by 
her  companions. 

Rosamond  was  not  the  Mother  of  an  Arch- 
bishop. —  Further,  Rosamond  is  commonly, 
though  erroneously,  stated  to  have  been  the  mother 
of  Richard  Longsword  and  Geoffrey,  Archbishop  of 
York.  Richard  was  the  son  of  Henry  II. ;  but  he 
Avas  not  a  Clifford.  The  argument  that  he  was  rests 
upon  a  confusion  between  the  Manor  of  Appleby, 
in  Lincolnshire,  which  M'as  granted  to  Longsword 
by  his  father,  and  the  Manor  of  Appleby,  in  West- 
moreland, which  was  held  by  Rosamond's  family, 
the  Cliffords.  Geoffrey,  the  only  non-rebellious  one 
of  Henry's  children  and  the  only  one  j)i'esent  at  his 
death-bed,  was  born  of  a  woman  named  Hikenai. 

A  Legend  of  Beeket's  Mother. —The  mother 


124  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

of  the  famous  archbishop  of  this  reign — Thomas 
Becket  —  was  not  of  Saracenic  origin.  The  story 
goes  that  a  London  merchant,  while  fighting  with 
the  crusaders,  was  taken  prisoner  by  a  Saracen 
chieftain,  whose  daughter  fell  in  love  with  him;  he 
escaped  and  returned  to  England.  The  broken- 
hearted girl  followed,  and  with  the  aid  of  only  two 
English  words,  "London"  and  "Gilbert,"  reached 
London  and  her  lover.  But  the  facts  are  these : 
The  archbishop's  father,  Gilbert  Becket,  one  of  the 
Norman  strangers  who  followed  in  the  wake  of  the 
Conqueror,  was  a  burgher  of  Rouen,,  and  his 
mother  ivas  of  a  burgher  faintly  from  the  neigh- 
boring town  of  Caen. 

Bpuee  and  the  Spider.  — The  incident  of  the 
spider  connected  with  the  career  of  Robert  the 
Bruce  is  another  latter-day  fable.  Sir  Herbert 
Maxwell  says,  in  "  Robert  the  Bruce  "  ("  Heroes  of 
the  Nation  Series")  :  "  Where  is  the  evidence  to  be 
found  in  support  of  it  ?  Not  in  the  writings  of 
Barbour,  Fordun,  or  Wyntoun,  those  most  nearly 
contemporary  with  Bruce,  and  least  likely  to  sup- 
press a  circumstance  so  picturesque  and  illustrating 
so  aptly  the  perseverance  and  patience  of  the  na- 
tional hero  under  desperate  difficulties.  No  ;  noth- 
ino-  is  heard  of  this  adventure  till  lono^  after  Bruce 
and  his  comrades  had  passed  away,  and  then  it 
makes  its  appearance  in  company  with  such  trash 
as  the  miraculous  appearance  of  the  arm  bone  of 
St.  Filian  on  the  eve  of  Bannockburn,  and  worthy 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  125 

of  just  about  as  much  consideration.''  The  same 
story  has  been  told  of  another  Scottish  hero  —  Sir 
James  Doughis. 

Richard  Coeup  de  L6on  a  Subject  of  Legend. 
—  In  March,  11S9,  the  Emperor  Frederick  Barba- 
rossa,  at  Mayence,  undertook  the  third  crusade. 
He  died  June  10,  1190,  as  the  Christian  army  was 
crossing  the  river  Saleph.  Richard  of  England 
also  entered  on  the  crusade,  and  was  present  at  the 
capture  of  Akkon  in  the  autumn  of  1191.  Leopold 
v.,  Duke  of  Austria,  planted  his  banner  on  the 
wall ;  then  went  and  aided  Richard  to  capture  Ar- 
suf,  in  September,  and  to  restore  Joppa.  History 
stops  here  and  fable  takes  up  the  dropped  thread. 
It  says  that  Richard  tore  down  the  Austrian  banner 
from  the  palace  and  flung  it  into  the  street ;  whereat 
Leopold  in  anger  started  home.  When  Richard, 
returning  in  October,  1192,  was  shipwrecked  on 
the  coast  of  Istria,  it  is  said  he  dressed  as  a  tem- 
plar and  set  out  by  land.  Near  Vienna  he  was 
betrayed  by  a  gold  coin  which  he  chanced  to  pass, 
or  according  to  a  variant,  penetrating  to  the  duke's 
kitchen,  he  served  as  a  turnspit  and  was  detected 
by  a  costly  ring  on  his  finger.  In  either  case,  he 
was  arrested  and  imprisoned,  first  at  Dlirenstein, 
where  Blondel  de  Nesle,  the  French  trouvere, 
found  him  by  his  song.  Later,  having  been  trans- 
ferred to  the  Emperor  Henry  VI.,  he  was  eon- 
fined  in  the  Castle  of  Trivel,  where  he  is  said  to 
have  won  his  name  of  the  Lion-hearted  by  killing  a 


126  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

starving  lion  and  eating  its  heart.  Such  is  the 
fable. 

The  truth  is  this  :  Richard  of  England  was 
arrested  and  delivered  to  the  Emperor,  on  the 
ground  that  he  favored  the  Guelfs,  who  were 
the  enemies  of  Henry  YI.  His  appearance  in 
Germany  was  expected,  and  spies  were  set  to 
watch  for  him. 

The  secret  of  his  imprisonment  was  really  dis- 
closed by  a  letter  from  his  captor  to  Philip  of 
France.  Hostages  were  then  found,  and  the  king 
agreed  to  remit  his  own  ransom,  and  did  so  after 
his  return  to  England,  January,  1194.  The  receipt 
for  it  is  among  the  Austrian  archives.  The  popu- 
lar story  does  not  appear  to  have  been  known  prior 
to  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  Fpeneh  Areher  was  not  flayed  Alive.— 
The  offensive  story  associated  with  Richard  can,  how- 
ever, be  traced  to  its  source.  Roger  of  Hovenden 
—  one  of  the  most  valued  of  our  early  chroniclers, 
on  whom  we  particularly  rely  for  the  events  of 
Richard's  reign  —  states,  and  the  modern  histories 
follow  him,  that  after  Richard's  death  Merchader 
seized  Gourdon,  the  archer,  whose  arrow  mortally 
wounded  the  king  before  the  Castle  of  Chaluz, 
flayed  him  alive,  and  then  hanged  him.  This  is 
absurd.  No  medical  authority  will  allow  that  any 
one  could  be  flayed  alive,  or  that  it  is  possible 
by  the  most  skilful  operation  to  remove  the 
skin   of  even   half   an    arm  —  from   the   elbow  to 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  127 

the  wrist  —  before  the  patient  would  die  under 
the  shock. 

King"  John  did  not  sign  "Magna  Charta."  — 
Nelson,  on  page  123  of  his  "  Royal  History,"  speak- 
ing of  King  John  in  1199,  says:  "  And  there,  with 
the  faintest  shadow  of  objection,  John  took  pen  in 
hand  and  affixed  (sic)  his  royal  signature  to  Magna 
Charta."  A  picture  accompanying  the  text  repre- 
sents John  actually  writing  his  name  with  a  quill 
pen.  By  the  way,  the  Charta  is  upside  down  ! 
What  the  king  really  did  was  to  affix  his  seal 
only,  for  the  very  precise  reason  tlmt  he  was  una- 
ble to  write. 

The  early  Saxon  and  Norman  kings  were  con- 
tent to  put  their  mark,  usually  a  cross,  to  a  docu- 
ment written  by  a  scribe.  Not  until  the  reign  of 
Edward  III.  is  a  royal  sign  manual  other  than  a 
cross  placed  on  a  document,  the  earliest  of  all  being 
what  is  described  in  W.  J.  Hardy's  "  Handwritings 
of  the  Kings  and  Queens  of  England"  as  words 
equivalent  to  his  signature  by  the  Black  Prince. 
The  words  in  question  are  Homout  Ich  Dene  on  a 
writ  of  1370.  But  the  Charta  was  signed,  i.e., 
sealed,  in  1215. 

Recent  f  ac-similes  of  the  Great  Charter  have  been 
copied,  as  the  publishers  state,  by  "express  per- 
mission from  the  original  document  in  the  British 
Museum."  Mr.  C.  E.  Clarke  availed  himself  of  an 
"  express  permission,"  and  found,  instead  of  an 
original   document,    only  a  few    square   inches   of 


128  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

charred  parchment  rescued  from  the  fire  of  1731, 
and  tenderly  cemented  on  what  is,  perhaps,  card- 
board. 

One  detail  of  the  ftic-simile  was  the  entire  red 
seal  hanging  on  a  cord ;  whereas  the  original  has 
only  half  a  seal,  in  brown  —  not  red  —  wax,  hang- 
ing on  a  strip  of  curled  parchment. 

The  Gartep  on  another  Footing.  —  The  ordi- 
narily accepted  story  of  the  founding  of  the  Order 
of  the  Garter  is  a  legend.  It  states  that  the  beauti- 
ful Countess  of  Salisbury,  while  dancing,  lost  the 
blue  garter  from  her  left  leg.  King  Edward  III. 
threw  himself  at  her  feet,  picked  up  the  precious 
object,  and  in  order  to  stifle  the  sarcasms  that  might 
and  perhaps  did  go  from  mouth  to  mouth,  he  uttered 
the  famous  phrase  honny  soit  qui  mal y  pense  ("  evil 
to  him  who  evil  thinks  ")  and  founded  the  exclusive 
society  which  has  that  motto. 

Another  legend,  less  authenticated,  but  regarded 
as  more  probable,  has  it  that  King  Edward  at  the 
battle  of  Crecy,  in  1346,  gave  the  signal  of  attack 
by  elevating  a  garter  on  the  end  of  his  lance,  with 
the  battle-cry  '*  St.  George,"  and  in  remembrance 
of  his  victory  over  Philippe  de  Yalois  founded  the 
order,  giving  its  device  to  guard  against  criticism 
of  the  name.  The  motto  was  known  in  the  Middle 
Ages. 

Neither  of  these  legends  is  known  to  the  order 
itself.  The  statutes  state  that  Edward  founded  it 
"to  the  glory  of  God,  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  the 


MISTAKES    IJ^    EXGLISH    HISTORY.  129 

Holy  Martyr  St.  George,  the  Protector  of  England, 
in  the  twenty-third  year  of  his  reign." 

The  First  Ppinee  of  Wales.  — In  1301,  in  the 
next  rei^n  but  one,  that  of  Edward  I.,  the  arreatest 
of  the  "  Plantagenets,"  the  first  Prince  of  Wales, 
and  weakest  of  the  "  Plantagenets,"  received  his 
title;  but  the  chamber  in  Carnarvon  Castle,  shown 
as  his  birthplace,  is  an  imaginary  shrine.  It  has 
been  proved  beyond  doubt  by  the  well-known  archa3- 
ologist,  Mr.  Albert  Hartshorne,  that  the  castle  was 
barely  begun  by  Edward  I.,  and  not  finished  till 
thirty-three  years  after  the  babyhood  of  this  his 
fourth  son. 

Queen  Eleanor  and  the  Fable  of  the  Poison. 
—  Neither  did  Queen  Eleanor,  the  mother  of  this 
boy,  suck  the  poison  from  the  arm  of  his  father,  as 
she  did  not  accompany  the  king  on  his  Palestine 
expedition,  1270-72,  during  which  this  incident  is 
alleged  to  have  taken  place. 

The  Prince  of  Wales'  Three  Feathers.  —  The 
grandson  of  this  first  Prince  of  Wales  "  won  his 
spurs  "  near  the  forest  of  Crecy,  1346.  At  the  bat- 
tle John,  the  blind  King  of  Bohemia,  was  among 
the  slain,  and  his  crest  is  supposed  to  have  become 
the  possession  of  the  Black  Prince,  and  to  have  ever 
since  been  borne  by  the  Princes  of  Wales.  •  This 
crest  is  almost  universally  believed  to  have  con- 
sisted of  three  ostrich  feathers.  But  John's  seal, 
still  extant,  shows  there  were  not  three,  but  nearer 
fifty,  and  the  feathers  were  not  from  the  ostrich, 


130  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

but  from  the  eagle ;  and,  further,  that  the  feathers 
were  not  arranged  like  our  familiar  designs,  but  like 
a  widely  opened  feather  fan,  extending  over  the  top 
of  the  helmet  to  the  back  in  much  the  same  way  as 
a  Red  Indian  wears  his  feathers.' 

It  is  suggested  that  the  three  plumes  in  the  mod- 
ern crest  were  originally  not  feathers  at  all,  but 
fleurs-de-lis;  and  also  that  only  John's  motto,  "I 
serve"  (Ich  dien),  was  assumed  and  transferred  to 
the  arms  of  France  by  the  Black  Prince  to  empha- 
size that,  whereas  formerly  the  objective  of  "I 
serve  "  was  the  French  king,  it  now  meant,  in  token 
of  victory,  "I  serve  (and  the  fleurs-de-lis  with  me) 
the  English  king,  my  father  (Edward  111.)." 

The  FleuF-de-Lis.  —  On  Assyrian  monuments 
date-trees  are  always  figured  with  ibex  or  goats' 
horns  tied  to  the  trees  to  ward  off  the  mischief  of  the 
evil  eye.  It  is  done  in  Sicily  and  Southern  Italy  at 
the  present  day.  The  device  was  taken  up  by  the 
Greeks,  and  what  is  known  as  the  honeysuckle  pat- 
tern is  nothing  but  ibex  horns  tied  to  a  tree.  The 
crusaders  in  the  East  took  this  to  be  a  royal  em- 
blem and  brought  it  home  to  France,  where  it  was 
adopted  as  the  fleur-de-lis. 

The  Black  Prince  did  not  always  wear  Black. 
—  The  Black  Prince,  says  the  author  of  "Names 
and  Their  Meaning,"  "  was  not  exclusively  addicted 
to   the  wearing  of  black  armor,  as   he   is  usually 


J  p.  Norman,  in  "  London  cjigns  and  Inscriptions,"  18y3,  says; 
King  John's  crest  was  a  vulture's  wing  expanded." 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  131 

re^Dresented  in  waxwork  shows  and  picture  toy- 
books;  consequently  he  did  not  derive  his  name 
from  such  an  association."  As  the  useful,  though 
not  always  trustworthy,  Froissart  informs  us,  "  He 
received  his  name  by  terror  of  his  arras."  The 
helmet  and  coat  of  mail  hanging  over  the  prince's 
tomb  in  Canterbury  Cathedral  bear  no  evidence  of 
ever  having  been  black. 

Why  Wat  Tyler  was  killed.  —  Thirty-one 
years  after  Crecy  the  Black  Prince's  son  was 
crowned  as  Richard  II. ;  four  years  later  the  Peas- 
ants' Revolt  occurred,  and  its  leader,  Wat  Tyler, 
was  killed  at  Smithfield  by  one  of  the  king's 
esquires,  Walworth,  —  Mayor  of  London  —  not  as 
an  insurgent,  but  for  having  set  fire  to  all  the  South- 
wark  houses  of  ill-fame  which  the  Mayor  held  as 
a  very  profitable  monopoly. 

How  did  Richard  II.  die?— When  Shake- 
speare, in  "  Richard  II.,"  follows  the  story  com- 
monly current  as  to  the  death  of  Richard  11. ,  and 
makes  Sir  Pierce  of  Exton  murder  him  at  Pomfret, 
we  are  rightly  sympathetic,  but  when  school  his- 
tories do  the  same  they  pervert  facts.  An  English 
text-book  says :  "The  dethroned  king  died  in  the 
dungeons  of  Pontefract,  either  by  starvation  or  by 
the  hand  of  an  assassin." 

This  is  worded  and  accepted  as  if  it  were  a 
correct  statement.  Other  accounts  with  equal 
emphasis  assert  that  it  was  a  case  of  suicide. 

But  the  truth  is  that  after  Richard's  abdication  he 


132  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

entirely  disappears  from  history ;  neither  the  time 
of  his  death  is  known  for  certain,  nor  that  it  took 
place  at  Pomfret;  and  there  is  no  evidence  to  jDrove 
that  Richard  died  other  than  a  natural  death. 

Another  of  Shakespeare's  Lies.  — The  "Mad- 
cap "  son  who  caused  so  much  anxiet}^  to  Henry 
lY.  during  his  declining  years,  and  who  was  about 
twelve  years  of  age  when  Chaucer  died,  was  not 
sent  to  prison  by  Sir  William  Gascoigne,  the  judge, 
for  striking  him  while  on  the  Bench,  nor  was 
Gascoigne  reappointed  by  the  prince  when  he 
became  Henry  Y.  The  story  did  not  appear  for  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years  after  that  time;  and  the 
tradition  is  mainly  kept  afloat  by  Shakespeare's 
*'  Henry  lY."  (second  part).  Act  Y.,  Scene  H. 

The  City  of  London  Arms.  —  The  dagger  in  the 
City  of  London  Arms  is  generally  supposed  to 
have  been  granted  by  Richard  to  Sir  William 
Walworth  for  his  assistance  in  putting  down  the 
Kentish  iron-founders'  rebellion.  This  is  not  true, 
for  "  it  had  been  there  long  before,  and  perhaps 
referred  to  past  services  of  the  citizens  in  furnish- 
ing arms;  or,  more  likely,  to  St.  Paul,  the  city's 
patron  saint,  whose  emblem  it  was." 

Dick  Whittington  had  no  Cat. —In  1397,  dur- 
ing the  reign  of  Henry  lY.,  the  famous  Dick  Whit- 
tington  was  Lord  Mayor  of  Loudon.  But  the  old 
legend  which  depicts  him  as  going  to  London  and 
achieving  his  fortune  by  means  of  his  cat  is  not 
true.     An  Eastern  lesfcnd  of  the  same  nature  is  the 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  133 

origin  of  the  whole  tale.  The  phrase  "  Whitting- 
ton  and  his  cat "  is  supposed  to  be  made  from  the 
French  word  achat,  used  in  the  14th  century  to  des- 
ignate buying  or  selling  at  a  profit,  and  probably 
pronounced  in  English  "  acat,"  and  then  simply 
"  cat."  When  its  meaning  had  been  almost  forgot- 
ten, some  inventive  genius  found  the  disused  word  a 
very  convenient  stock  on  which  to  graft  the  Eastern 
story. 

According  to  tradition,  Whittington  made  his 
*•  cat"  by  trading  in  coals,  which  were  first  made  an 
article  of  trade  from  Newcastle  to  London  in  1381. 

Jack  Cade  was  a  Gentleman.  —  At  the  death 
of  Whittington  the  new  king,  Henry  VI.,  was  but 
fifteen  months  old,  and  some  twenty-seven  years 
later  the  well-organized  gathering  from  Kent,  Sur- 
rey, and  Sussex,  known  as  the  Jack  Cade  Rebellion, 
assembled  on  Blackheath,  and  after  retracing  their 
steps  to  Sevenoaks,  where  they  routed  the  king's 
forces,  marched  to  London,  which,  by  a  vote  of  ad- 
mittance from  the  Common  Council,  they  occupied 
for  some  days. 

The  "  Captain  of  Kent,"  as  the  leader  called 
himself,  was  not  a  wanton  Socialist  and  the  illiter- 
ate person  and  impostor  that  Shakespeare  so  com- 
pletely caricatured  in  "  Henry  VI."  (second  part). 

On  the  contrary,  he  was,  in  a  political  sense,  a 
humane  reformer,  with  a  well-defined  program 
based  on  a  cause  as  just  as  that  which  secured 
Magna  Charta.     Pie  had  served  with  distinction  in 


134  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

the  French  wars,  and  owned  land  —  both  freehold 
and  leasehold  —  in  Kent.  His  enterprise  was  ar- 
ranged strictly  under  the  regular  local  machinery 
and  was  backed  by  many  of  tlie  squires  of  Kent  and 
adjoining  counties,  as  well  as  by  some  prominent 
Churchmen  —  the  great  landowners.  Abbot  of  Battle 
and  Prior  of  Lewes. 

The  ''Complaint  of  the  Commons  of  Kent"  ably 
set  forth  the  grievances  of  the  people  and  their 
demands,  —  economy  of  public  money,  exactions 
under  color  of  law,  and  freedom  of  election,  — 
and  Cade  enforced  it  with  dignity,  tact,  and  cour- 
age ;  but  the  Fates,  with  Shakespeare  and  school 
histories,  have  combined  to  give  him  the  libellous 
character  of  an  unruly  impostor  and  a  vulgarly 
impudent  rebel,  who  undertook  to  make  himself 
king  and  "to  sell  seven  half -penny  loaves  for  a 
penny."" 

Sebastian  Cabot  did  not  discover  the  Ameri- 
can Continent.  —  Sebastian  Cabot  is  sometimes 
still  mentioned  as  the  discoverer  of  North  America. 
The  Sebastian  thesis  was  undermined  years  since, 
and  exploded  a  little  later  hj  Mr.  Weare,  whose 
account  of  the  Cabot  voyages  is  most  complete. 
Though  in  Henry  VH/s  Lettei's  Patent  Sebastian 
is  mentioned  with  his  father,  John  Cabot,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  he  did  not  accompany  him  in  the  voyage 
of  1497,  that  in  which  the  continent  was  discov- 
ered. It  is  equally  certain  that  he  was  not  a  mem- 
ber of  the   second   expedition,  from   which  John 


mistakp:s  in  English  history.        135 

Cabot  never  returned.  "  The  undoubted  discoverer 
was  the  never-to-be-forgotten  John  Cabot. '^ 

The  Duke  of  Clarence  was  not  drowned  in 
Wine.  —  Edward  in  1477  impeaclied  his  brother, 
the  Duke  of  Clarence,  who  was  thereupon  con- 
demned to  die  within  tlie  Traitor's  Gate,  and  was 
there  secretly  made  away  with.  There  is,  how- 
ever, absolutely  no  evidence  to  show  that  the  duke 
was  drowned  in  a  butt  of  Malmsey  wine,  either  in 
the  dark,  windowless  room  pointed  out  in  the 
Bloody  Tower  or  anywhere  else. 

The  Traitor's  Gate  shown  to  visitors  at  the  Tower 
of  London  is  not  the  original  (which  Phineas  Barnum 
told  G.  A.  Sala  he  had  purchased  at  a  sale  of  con- 
demned government  stores,  and  which  he  intended 
to  erect  at  the  entrance  to  his  New  York  museum) , 
but  a  "modernized  sham." 

What  really  happened  to  Jane  Shore. —A 
17th  century  ballad  entitled,  "  The  Woful  Lamen- 
tations of  Jane  Shore,  a  Goldsmith's  Wife  in 
London,  sometime  King  Edward  IV.  his  Concu- 
bine," says : 

"  I  yielded  up  my  vital  strength 
Within  a  ditch  of  loathsome  scent, 
Where  carrion  dogs  did  much  frequent." 

The  tale  that  Jane  Shore,  worn  out  with  agoniz- 
ing poverty  and  hunger,  and  discarded  by  the  king, 
died  miserably  in  a  ditch  is  wholly  erroneous. 

Jane  Shore  survived  Edward  by  thirty  years,  and 


136  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

died  at  a  ripe  old  age  in  a  religious  house.  Her 
penance  at  St.  Paul's,  maliciously  ordered  by 
Richard  III.,  is  alluded  to  by  Michael  Drayton.  In 
spite  of  this  order,  which  extended  to  the  robbing 
of  her  house  as  well,  poverty  was  averted  by  the 
care  of  the  Marquis  of  Dorset.  In  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.  Sir  Thomas  More  distinctly  asserts 
that  she  was  then  alive,  and  seems  to  imply  that 
he  himself  had  seen  her. 

Jane  did  not  give  hep  Name  to  Shorediteh.  — 
Shoreditch,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  took  its  name  from 
the  old  family  of  the  Soerdiches,  who  were  lords 
of  the  manor  in  the  time  of  Edward  III.  Stowe 
mentions  a  house  at  Hackney  called  Shoreditch 
Place,  probably  the  old  mansion  of  Sir  John  Soer- 
diche,  who  was  one  of  the  brothers-in-arms  with 
the  Bhick  Prince. 

Richard  III.  not  a  Humpback.  —  Richard  III. 
may  have  been  a  monster  of  iniquity,  as  Sir  Thomas 
More  and  other  Tudor  partisans  describe  him,  yet 
he  was  no  worse  than  his  brother,  and  certainly 
he  was  less  unscrupulous  than  his  successor;  but 
to  call  him  "ugly"  and  a  "hunchback,"  because 
Shakespeare  does,  is  unjust. 

Besides  possessing  great  muscular  strength,  a 
pleasant  if  not  handsome  face,  and  desperate 
courage,  he  had  the  perfect  figure  of  a  soldier. 

Bloody  Queen  Mary. —  The  evils  with  which 
popular  opinion  has  stained  tiie  character  of  Queen 
Mary  were  really  perpetrated  through  the  instiga- 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  137 

tions  and  under  the  direction  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  Cardinal  Pole,  and  the  Spanish 
Court  then  residing  in  England,  after  the  marriage 
between  Maiy  and  Philip  of  Spain.  He  alone,  if 
anybody,  should  in  strictness  bear  the  dishonorable 
distinction. 

The  full  extent  of  the  sanguinary  persecutions  of 
her  short  reign  was  hardly  known  to  her  —  for 
during  a  great  part  of  the  time  she  was  in  a  state 
of  deep  depression  and  inactivity,  owing  to  mental 
and  bodily  ill-health.  It  has  not  been  proved  that 
her  disposition  was  cruel  and  harsh. 

Edward  VI.  was  not  a  Founder  of  Schools.  — 
Mr.  Leache's  learned  "English  Schools  of  the 
Reformation  "  shows  conclusively  that  Edward  VI., 
instead  of  being  a  great  founder  of  schools,  had 
been  their  great  spoiler,  some  three  hundred  being 
suppressed  under  him  and  his  father.  "  Never  w^as 
a  great  reputation  so  easily  gained  and  less  deserved 
than  that  of  King  Edward  VI.  as  a  founder  of 
schools." 

But  it  should  be  remembered  that  "  Edward  VI." 
stands  for  his  Council,  not  '•  the  poor,  rickety,  over- 
educated  boy,  who  was  only  sixteen  when  he  died," 
and  who,  with  the  very  doubtful  exception  of 
Christ's  Hospital,  had  personally  no  lot  in  the 
matter. 

Edward's  government  must  be  considered  as  not 
having  founded  a  single  school.  At  the  death  of 
the  Protector  Somerset,  the  Duke  of  Northumber- 


138  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

land  managed  to  induce  the  Council  to  reendow  a 
few  of  those  schools  that  had  been  robbed ;  but  that 
was  all. 

The  Pilgrim  Fathers.  —  The  Pilgrim  Fathers 
of  the  days  of  James  1.  did  not  emigrate  straight 
away  from  England  to  America,  as  many  suppose. 
The  little  band  of  Lincolnshire  "  Puritans"  at  first 
fled  to  Leyden  in  Holland,  and  some  years  later 
departed  for  Delft,  where,  after  a  farewell  prayer- 
meeting  in  the  church,  they  embarked  for  New 
England,  or  rather  for  the  Hudson,  calling  for 
friends  at  Southampton  on  their  way.  There  is  an 
absurd  idea  that  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  popular  fame 
differed  widely  in  their  views  from  the  men  of  the 
"Mayflower."  Puritanism  arose  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  and  the  sect  split  into  two  or  more 
branches,  of  which  the  Pilgrims,  who  were  SejDarat- 
ists,  having  openly  withdrawn  from  the  National 
Church  and  practised  the  prerogative  of  self-rule, 
formed,  one,  founding  the  Brownist  or  Congrega- 
tional Church,  but  the  Puritans  were  strict  Church  of 
England  men,  and  so  were  the  Massachusetts 
colonists.  Thus  Francis  Higginson,  who  came  to 
Salem  in  1629,  remarked,  "We  do  not  go  to  New 
England  as  Separatists  from  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, though  we  cannot  but  separate  from  the  cor- 
ruptions in  it;  but  we  go  to  practise  the  positive  part 
of  church  reformation  ;"  and  Winthrop's  company 
spoke  of  the  Church  of  England  as  their  "dear 
Mother."     You  will  see  "  Pilgrim  Fathers  "  defined 


MISTAKES    IX    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  139 

as  the  name  given  to  one  hundred  and  two  Puritans 
who  sailed  in  the  "Mayflower"  from  Plymouth. 
Pilo-rim  and  Puritan  are  not  the  same ;  the  Pilcrrini 
Fathers  did  not  start  from  Plymouth.  It  may  be 
of  some  interest  to  mention  that  in  the  vestibule  of 
the  House  of  Lords  is  a  fine  painting,  by  Cope,  of 
the  sailing  of  the  "  Mayflower."  It  was  formerly 
inscribed,  "Departure  of  a  Puritan  Family  for  New 
England."  Lords  Macaulay  and  Stanhope  gave  a 
hearing  to  the  artist  and  others  interested ;  and 
seeino;  their  habitual  error  in  confoundins:  Puritan 
with  Separatist,  they,  as  Commissioners  on  Decora- 
tions, changed  "  A  Puritan  Family"  to  "Pilgrim 
Fathers." 

The  Puritans  were  not  so  Strict.  —  The  idea 
prevalent  is  that  Cromwellian  Puritanism  signifies 
the  bigotry  of  "  gloomy  fanatics."  That  it  was  an- 
other name  for  dulness  consequent  upon  the  assump- 
tion of  a  too  elevated  standard  of  moral  conduct  is 
proved  by  the  enthusiasm  with  which  Charles  11. 
was  welcomed  back  to  the  throne.  But  to  suppose 
that  the  Puritans  were  harsh  and  sour  and  tried  to 
crush  out  all  forms  of  pleasure  and  amusement  is  a 
great  mistake. 

Cromwell  was  fond  of  out-door  games  and  sport, 
and  liked  horses,  although  it  is  not  true  that  he  ever 
kept  race-horses. 

We  find  that  the  benchers  of  the  Middle  Temple 
gave  a  great  dance  in  their  hall  in  1651,  and  the 
additional  fact  that  the  exercise  was  inaugurated  by 


140  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

singing  a  psalm  eloquently  declares  the  ideal  of 
Puritanism  to  be  not  in  the  present  debased  mean- 
ing of  the  word  "  Puritanical,"  but  rather  of  God- 
fearing restraint. 

Moreover,  magnificent  State  dinners  Avere  accom- 
panied by  music,  which  was  an  innovation  at  that 
time,  and  Sabbatarians  will  be  horrified  when  they 
discover  that  Cromwell  opened  his  last  Parliament 
on  Sunday  with  a  magnificent  ceremonial.  "  The 
better  the  day  the  better  the  deed  "  was  obviously 
Cromwell's  maxim. 

Cromwell  and  Hampden  did  not  attempt  to  sail 
to  America  just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  English 
revolution.  A  number  of  their  friends  did,  but  they 
had  no  thought  of  going. 

The  Execution  of  Charles  I.  —  The  conven- 
tional conception  of  the  historic  scene  at  Whitehall 
(Jan.  30,  1649)  when  Charles  I.  was  executed 
shows  him  kneeling  down  and  laying  his  head 
upon  a  block  several  feet  high.  Such  is  the  one 
preserved  at  the  Tower  as  the  original  block  on 
which  Lord  Kilmarnock  and  Lord  Balmerino 
were  executed,  the  one  in  1746,  the  other  in 
1747. 

This  is  a  mistake.  There  was  no  such  block, 
and  Charles  did  not  kneel.  He  simply  lay  flat  at 
full  length  on  the  scaffold,  and  his  head  was  cut 
ofi"  as  it  lay  over  a  little  piece  of  wood  not  more 
than  two  or  three  inches  high.  Among  so  many 
who  suffered  in   this   way  was  Lady  Jane   Grey 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  141 

(1554),  and  therefore  not  on  the  Tower  block,  as 
is  often  supposed. 

There  is  ample  jDroof  that  the  method  of  behead- 
ing in  Tudor  and  Cromwellian  times  necessitated 
the  victim  lying  prone  on  the  scaffold.  John 
Button's  "Descriptive  Sketches  of  Tunbridge 
Wells  "  declares  that  Judge  Jeffreys  presided  over 
the  trial  of  King  Charles  I. 

The  Tpee  Charles  did  not  hide  in.  —The  dance 
in  which  the  Puritans  took  part  celebrated  the 
scattering  of  Charles  II. ''s  army  at  Worcester 
(1651),  and  hundreds  of  pious  tourists  eveiy  year 
visit  Boscobel  Oak,  which  is  reputed  to  possess  the 
distinction  of  having  concealed  Charles  for  a  whole 
day  after  the  battle,  while  he  watched  through  its 
leafy  screen  Oliver's  soldiers  searching  for  him. 
Scientific  evidence  shows  that  the  tree,  being  only 
eleven  feet  ten  inches  in  girth,  could  not  have  been 
the  pollard  oak  of  nearly  two  and  a  half  centuries 
ago. 

In  1817  an  inscription,  afterwards  removed, 
expressly  intimated  "  the  present  tree  "  to  have 
sprung  from  the  royal  oak.  It  has  been  ascertained 
that  the  original  tree,  whether  deserving  of  the 
celebrity  attaching  to  it  or  not,  disappeared  soon 
after  1787,  the  oak  long  before  that  date  having 
been  almost  cut  away  by  relic  hunters  who  came 
to  see  it. 

Boys  and  others  gather  oak  leaves  on  the  29th  of 
May  to  commemorate  the  king's  mode  of   conceal- 


142  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

ment.  But  the  king  hid  himself  early  in  Septem- 
ber. Had  he  climbed  an  oak-tree  in  May,  the 
foliage  would  not  have  been  sufficiently  developed 
to  conceal  him.  What  is  really  celebrated,  and, 
perhaps,  combined  with  the  former  event,  is  his 
restoration  in  16G0,  when  his  route  through  Lon- 
don was  strewn  with  oak  branches. 

Nelson  did  not  disobey  Parkep.  —  Only  about 
eleven  months  before  Dr.  Jenner's  fame  had 
reached  its  zenith.  Lord  Nelson  returned  to  Eng- 
land after  his  ' '  glorious  disobedience  "  at  Copen- 
hagen (1801).  We  all  know  the  story — so  often 
repeated  to  characterize  Nelson's  reckless  and 
determined  bravery  —  of  Nelson  putting  his  tele- 
scope to  his  sightless  eye  and  declaring  that  he  did 
not  see  Sir  Hyde  Parker's  signal  to  discontinue 
fighting.  But  Prof.  Knox  Laughton  explains 
away  this  story  and  substitutes  phenomenal  cool- 
ness for  reckless  disobedience.  He  says :  "  It  is 
very  well  established  that  Parker  sent  his  flag- 
captain,  Otway,  with  a  verbal  message  that  the 
signal  was  to  be  understood  as  permissive,  and 
was  made  in  that  way  so  that  the  whole  responsi- 
bility might  rest  with  Parker,  if  Nelson  judged  it 
advisable  to  discontinue  the  action.  If  he  thought 
it  advisable  to  continue  it  he  was  at  liberty  to  do 
so.  He  judged  it  right  to  continue;  and  the  little 
pantomime  was  only  a  joke,  at  the  expense  of 
Colonel  Stewart  standing  by,  who  had  no  knowl- 
edge of  the  message  Otway  had  brought." 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  143 

The  Massacre  of  Gleneoe  not  by  Englishmen. 

—  The  Ilig-hlanders  joyfully  believed  that  the  res- 
toration had  permanently  secured  the  ancient  name 
of  Stewart,  but  the  Massacre  of  Gleneoe  in  1692 
dashed  their  hopes.  Thousands  believe  that  the 
Macdonalds  were  massacred  by  a  party  of  English 
soldiers,  in  consequence  of  an  order  signed  by 
William  III.  The  truth  is  that  neither  the  insti- 
gators nor  the  assassins  were  Englishmen ;  they 
were  all  inhabitants  of  Scotland,  and  neighbors  — 
and  some  were  relatives  —  of  the  murdered  men. 

"  The  king  signed  this  warrant  under  the  impres- 
sion that  the  Macdonalds  of  Gleneoe  were  the  main 
obstacles  to  the  pacification  of  the  Highlands,  the 
fact  that  Macdonald  had  submitted  being  carefully 
kept  from  his  knowledge.  The  iniquitous  act  was 
done  at  the  instigation  of  the  Earl  of  Braedalbane, 
whose  lands  had  been  plundered  during  the  late  hos- 
tilities by  the  men  of  Gleneoe,  and  who  thirsted  for 
vengeance  on  that  account,  and  also  because  his 
treachery  to  William  had  been  exposed  by  Macdon- 
ald himself,  who  showed  that  he  had  been  secretly 
negotiating  with  the  other  clans.  The  execution  of 
the  warrant  of  extermination  was  therefore  urged 
on  by  the  Secretary  of  State  (the  friend  of  Braedal- 
bane) with  the  utmost  rigor."  The  full  facts  can 
be  read  by  any  one  in  "  Notes  to  the  Highland 
Widow,"  by  Sir  W.  Scott. 

Her  Majesty  is  not  a  Guelph.  —  Queen  Victoria 
and  the  other  members  of  the  Houses  of  Brunswick- 


144  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Llineberg  and  Hanover  are  descended  from  Azon, 
Margrave  of  Este.  Her  name  and  that  of  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland  who  claimed  the  throne  of  Hanover 
is  Azon,  or  Azon  von  Este.  The  Prince  of  Wales, 
being  the  son  of  Albert  of  Saxe-Coburg,  is  neither 
a  Guelph  nor  an  Azon ;  he  belongs  to  the  Wettin 
line,  which  was  founded  by  the  first  Count  of  Wettin 
in  the  twelfth  century.  The  Queen's  given  names 
are  Alexandrina  Victoria,  and  her  partiality  for  the 
second,  and  as  it  were  inferior,  name  arises  from  the 
fact  that  it  was  her  mother's.  The  first  name  com- 
memorates her  godfather,  the  Emperor  of  Russia. 

Tsar  Nicholas  is  an  Oldenburg.  —  The  Em- 
peror of  Russia  is  known  as  a  Romanof,  but  if 
instead  of  tracing  his  descent  through  the  feminine 
line  we  trace  his  name  to  the  father  of  his  race,  in 
accordance  with  the  generally  accepted  rule,  it  i« 
found  to  be  Oldenburg.  For  the  same  reason,  it  is 
not  correct  to  call  the  members  of  the  English 
Royal  family  Guelphs. 

Mistaken  Anniversaries.  —  In  "Peveril  of  the 
Peak"  and  several  other  books  the  17th  of  Novem- 
ber is  siDoken  of  as  the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of 
Queen  Elizabeth.  She  was  born  on  the  7th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1533,  and  the  17th  of  November  was  the 
anniversary  of  her  accession  in  1558,  and  conse- 
quently was  "  the  birthday  of  the  Protestant  re- 
ligion." 

In  the  same  way  the  accession  of  Queen  Victoria, 
June  20,  has   been  recently   confounded   with  her 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  145 

coronation,  which  took  place  on  the  23d  of  Sep- 
tember. 

About  the  Armada.  —  For  three  centuries  the 
failure  of  the  great  Spanish  Armada  has  been  pop- 
ularly believed  to  have  been  due  to  its  dissipation 
by  a  great  storm.  The  legend  struck  off  at  the 
time  was,  "  Flavit  Deus  et  dissipati  sunty  From  a 
religious  point  of  view  such  a  representation  is 
childish ;  from  the  historical  it  is  false. 

The  Spanish  fleet  had  already  met  with  a  crush- 
ing defeat  in  which  the  English  had  destroyed  many 
ships  and  men  before  it  was  overtaken  by  storms  in 
the  Northern  seas.  That  fleet  was  badly  com- 
manded, badly  equipped.  The  best  English  sea- 
men did  not  believe  in  the  seaworthiness  of  the 
Spanish  vessels,  which  were  overmasted  and 
leaking. 

By  August  4th  five  of  the  most  important  Spanish 
ships  had  not  a  drop  of  water ;  very  little  food  was 
on  hand,  and  many  of  the  men  were  ill.  It  is  doubt- 
ful whether  120  Spanish  ships  of  all  sizes  came  into 
the  channel,  while  the  total  number  of  Spanish 
fighting  men  was  not  more  than  from  10,000  to 
12,000,  (Green's  "  History"  says  :  "  Spain  had  149 
ships  and  28,000  men,") 

On  the  other  hand,  England  had  197  ships  and 
about  18,000  men,  (Green  says  :  "  Only  80  ships  and 
9,000  men.'"  )  The  English  sailors  also  were  accus- 
tomed to  the  great  open  seas,  while  the  Spaniards 
were  mainly  fair-weather  seamen.     Thus  it  will  be 


146  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

seen  that  the  defeat  of  the  Armada,  like  the  recent 
defeat  at  Sant'  lago  and  Manihi,  was  due,  not  to 
storms,  still  less  to  Divine  favoritism,  but  to  the 
simple  fact  that  England  had  the  better  navy.^ 

Why  the  Apmada  was  sent.  —  The  reason  for 
sending  this  great  expedition  against  England  was 
JMary  Queen  of  Scots'  transference  of  her  interest 
in  the  English  succession  to  Philip,  for  this  was 
made  after  the  Armada  had  been  projected  ;  not  the 
pressing  need  of  destroying  Protestantism,  nor 
Elizabeth's  refusal  to  marry  Philip,  —  yet  each  of 
these  motives  may  be  found  advocated  in  various 
text-books  as  explanatory  of  "Castile's  black 
fleet." 

We  must  understand  that  the  Anglo-Spanish 
conflict  began  several  years  before  the  Armada 
appeared,  and  also  that  its  immediate  cause  was 
not  the  dislike  of  the  Inquisition,  but  the  dread  of 
a  hostile  power  establishing  itself  in  the  seaports 
of  the  Netherlands,  and  the  special  fear  by  English 
statesmen  that  France  would  join  Spain  in  making 
the  attempt,  in  which  case  the  history  of  British 
progress  might  have  been  considerably  delayed. 

An  English  arni}^  was,  therefore,  sent  there,  and 
miserably  failed ;  but  the  English  fleet  swept  the 
Spanish  West  Indies,  —  where  "  an  exclusive  com- 

1  How  closely  the  facts  and  figures  agree  wilh  those  given  by 
Mr.  Hume  —  the  acknowledged  authority  on  the  Elizabethan 
period  — may  be  seen  in  the  "Nineteenth  Century  "  for  rieptember, 

1897. 


MISTAKES    IN    ENGLISH    HISTORY.  147 

mercial  policy,  adopted  and  enforced  by  the  Spanish 
Government,'^  led  Hawkins,  Drake,  and  others  into 
smuggling  and  bloody  reprisals,  —  and  it  was  ,the 
naval  success  of  England  in  her  illicit  traffic  with 
the  Spanish  colonies  that  determined  Philip  on  the 
expedition  of  the  Armada. 

During  the  alarm  of  the  Spanish  invasion  the 
command  of  the  land  forces  was  intrusted  to  the 
Earl  of  Leicester  —  the  courtier  who  intrigued  to 
obtain  the  favor  of  his  peers  in  proposing  marriage 
with  the  queen,  and  who,  in  the  interests  of  which 
l^roject,  is  supposed  to  have  procured  the  murder  of 
his  wife,  Amy  Robsart. 

Rizzio's  Bloodstains.  —  Six  years  after  Amy's 
murder  the  blood  of  Rizzio,  the  Italian  Secretary 
of  Mary  Stuart,  was  shed  on  the  floor  of  Holy  rood 
by  certain  Protestant  leaders,  aided  by  the  queen's 
husband,  Darnley,  and  in  the  imaginacion  of  the 
public  the  stain  has  not  yet  disappeared.  But  what 
is  seen  there  is  not  Rizzio's  blood.  It  may  have 
been  at  one  time  a  daub  of  red  paint ;  perhaps  pig's 
blood  —  any  suggestion  will  do.  The  stain  —  assum- 
ing of  course  that  it  is  over  three  hundred  years 
old  —  may  be  the  blood  of  one  of  the  conspirators^ 
for  "so  eager  and  reckless  were  they  in  their 
ferocity  that  in  the  struggle  to  get  at  him  they 
wounded  one  another y  But  then  why  are  there  not 
many  stains?  All  the  guide-books  speak  of  a 
certain  stain.  Surely  fifty-six  stabs  would  have 
been  sufficient  to  deluge  the  place.     By  what  in- 


148  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

herent  virtue  is  this  certain  stain  alone  able  to 
remain  ?  Simply,  we  repeat,  because  it  is  painted 
and  renewed  with  a  superstition,  still  prevalent, 
that  bloodstains  cannot  be  washed  out. 

Queen  Mary's  Bed.—  Of  equal  consequence 
to  the  confiding  sightseer,  no  less  than  to  his  guide's 
frame  of  mind,  are  the  well-attested  disclosures  that 
*'  Queen  Mary's  bed,  also  at  Holyrood,  is  of  the  last 
century,  and  her  room  at  Hardwick  is  in  a  house 
which  was  not  erected  till  after  her  death,"  at 
Fotheringay,  in  1587. 


BLUNDERS    IN    GENERAL    HISTORY.  149 


CHAPTER  XI. 

CURIOUS   BLUNDERS   IN   GENERAL   HISTORY. 

Mediaeval  Dipt.— The  Right  Hon.  Dr.  Lyon 
Playfair,  M.P.  (pronounced  Pluffer),  stated  in  an 
address  delivered  at  Glasgow  in  October,  1874, 
that  "  for  a  thousand  years  there  was  not  a  man  or 
woman  in  Europe  that  ever  took  a  bath  !  "  And  he 
attributes  to  the  extraordinary  condition  of  things 
the  epidemics  that  ravaged  the  Middle  Ages.  Mi- 
ch elet  before  him  said  the  same  thing.  It  is  prob- 
ably a  gross  libel  on  our  ancestors.  Viollet-le-Duc 
states  that  in  the  twelfth  century  bath-rooms  were 
built  in  houses  as  now,  only  they  were  more  com- 
modious than  ours. 

Moguls  and  Romans.  — Speaking  of  the  Mogul 
Empire,  Freeman^  says:  *' This  dynasty  is  com- 
monly known  as  Mogul,  both  in  and  out  of  India; 
but  Baber  ""  —  who  founded  the  so-called  Mogul 
Empire  in  1525-26  —  "was  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses a  Turk.  His  memoirs  were  written  in  Turk- 
ish ;  and  he  always  speaks  of  the  real  Moguls  with 
dislike.  The  cause  of  the  misnomer  is  that  the 
name  Mogul    is   in    India  loosely   applied   to   all 

1  "  Historj'  of  the  Saracens,"  p.  292. 


150  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Strangers  from  the  North,  much  in  the  same  way 
as  that  of  Turk  is  throughout  the  East  for  all 
strangers  from  the  West.  It  is  even  applied  to  the 
Persians  with  hardly  more  reason  than  the  Persians 
themselves  have  for  calling  the  Ottoman  Turks 
Romans." 

The  Eastern  Empire,  being  the  legitimate  suc- 
cessor of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  was  known  to 
the  Mediaeval  Persians  as  Rum.  When  the  Otto- 
man Turks  succeeded  in  capturing  Constantinople 
or  Byzantium,  the  name  Rum  was  still  loosely 
applied  to  all  that  region.  So  it  is  hardly  true  to 
state  that  the  Persians  call  the  Turks  Romans. 

William  Tell  did  not  exist.  —  Until  1836  it 
was  believed  that  the  story  of  Wilhelm  Tell  in  all 
its  poetic  details  was  an  historic  fact.  But  in  that 
year  a  German  named  Bopp  subjected  the  legend 
to  a  rigid  examination  and  separated  its  historic 
foundations  from  fable.  The  first  attempt  of  the 
Swiss  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  the  Habsburgs  was 
in  1231,  when  the  canton  of  LM  was  freed  from 
Count  Rudolf.  Schwyz  followed  in  1240,  and 
some  years  later  Unterwalden  obtained  the  same 
boon.  In  1291,  the  year  of  the  death  of  the  Em- 
peror Rudolf  I.,  Niedwalden  and  Oberwalden 
joined  forces.  On  August  1  the  three  first  can- 
tons made  a  defensive  alliance.  Open  war  broke 
out  shortly  after  between  the  Swiss  and  Austria, 
and  lasted  till  1293,  when  Albrecht,  Rudolf  s  son, 
made  peace.      This   lasted   with  various  interrup- 


BLUNDERS    IN    GENERAL    HISTORY.  151 

tions  till  into  the  fifteenth  century.  The  battle  of 
Morgarten  on  the  16th  of  November,  1315,  when 
an  insignificant  horde  of  shepherds  and  peasants 
won  a  brilliant  victory  over  the  best-trained  troops 
and  ablest  generals  of  Austria,  was  the  foundation- 
stone  of  the  famous  Bund  der  Eidgenossen.  In 
the  oldest  chronicle,  that  of  the  monk  Johannes 
Yon  Winterthiir  (1340-1347),  which  describes  the 
battle  of  Morgarten,  nothing  is  said  of  Tell, 
Staufacher,  Melchtal,  Fiirst,  or  of  Gessler  and 
Landenberg.  Nor  in  any  other  account  of  these 
circumstances  is  there  any  hint  of  the  legend  until 
1470,  when  the  so-called  "  White  Book''  was  pub- 
lished. In  this  the  story  is  told  in  simple  form, 
and  the  scene  of  the  Riitlibund  is  laid  in  Unter- 
walden.  Melchior  Russ,  of  Lucerne,  in  his  chronicle 
of  1482,  makes  Tell  the  leader,  but  lays  the  scene 
in  Uri.  But  there  are  no  conspirators  and  no  Riit- 
libund. Elterlin,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
Stumpf,  in  1548,  call  the  Landvogt  Grissler ;  and 
Stumpf  dates  the  conspiracy  1313,  after  the  death 
of  the  Emperor  Heinrich.  The  famous  Swiss 
chronicler  Tschudi,  of  Glarus,  who  died  in  1572, 
gave  its  present  form  to  the  story ;  but  certain 
details  —  that  Tell  was  from  Burglen,  that  he  was 
Walter  Fiirst's  son-in-law,  and  that  he  had  two 
sons,  Walter  and  Wilhelm,  that  Gessler's  name 
was  Hermann,  or  that  the  conspiracy  was  called 
Riitli  —  were  left  for  Johannes  Miiller,  at  the 
end  of  the  last  century,  to  add  ;    and  Miiller  ob- 


152  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

tained  them  from  the  pious  priests  who  invented 
them. 

Tell,  then,  is  a  myth  made  up  of  folk  legends 
common  to  many  peoples  and  lands.  The  story  is 
told,  in  a  ballad,  about  the  archer  William  of 
Cloudesley,  and  in  legendary  history  as  occurring 
even  in  English  territory:  "The  canton  of 
Schwyz,  in  August,  1890,  ordered  the  story  of  Tell 
to  be  expunged  (as  being  non-historical  and  leg- 
endary onl}')  from  the  school-books  of  the  can- 
ton." The  London  "  Echo ''  for  May  23d  is  authority 
for  the  statement  that  in  Scotland  TelPs  name  was 
Leod ;  in  Scandinavia,  Palmatoke ;  in  Denmark, 
Tako.  Also  in  Persia  the  Tell  myth  was  popular. 
There  was  a  Landvogt  named  Gessler  in  1386  at 
Thurgam,  and  a  knight  Ulrich  Gessler  in  1369  at 
Meyenberg. 

The  Stopy  of  Arnold  von  Winkelried  is  a 
Legend.  —  Poetry  has  enjoyed  great  license  with 
the  story  of  the  heroic  Winkelried.  In  the  oldest 
chronicle  of  the  battle  of  Sempadi,  written  by  Jus- 
tinger,  the  city  scribe  of  Bern,  not  a  word  is  said  of 
Winkelried,  or  of  the  Wall  of  Lances.  In  one  of 
the  Ziirich  chronicles  it  says :  "After  the  Confed- 
erates had  suffered  great  losses,  God  helped  them  to 
the  victory.  This  was  due  to  a  true  man  among 
the  Confederates.  When  he  saw  that  things  Avere 
going  so  ill  with  his  comrades,  and  that  the  gentle- 
men  were  everywhere  piercing  the  foremost  in  the 
ranks  with  their  lances  and  pikes  before  the  Swiss 


BLUNDERS    IN    GENERAL    HISTORY.  153 

could  reach  them  with  their  halberds,  this  hon- 
orable, pious  man  pushed  forward  and  seized  as 
many  pikes  as  he  could  grasp  and  bore  them  down 
so  that  the  Confederates  could  now  j^ush  forward. 
And  with  joy  he  shouted  :  "All  in  the  rear  are  in 
flight!"    "  So  fliehen   Alle  da  hinlenV 

The  name  of  the  hero  is  not  given  nor  is  his  death 
mentioned.  His  rejoicing  in  the  flight  of  the  enemy 
would  seem  to  disprove  that  he  was  killed.  But 
the  whole  story  is  an  addendum  inserted  ten  years 
after  the  chronicle  was  composed  and  eighty  years 
after  the  battle.  Melchior  Russ,  who  wrote  in  1486, 
a  hundred  years  after  the  battle,  knew  nothing  of 
the  circumstance.  Winkelried's  name  was  not 
heard  of  before  the  sixteenth  century,  and  the 
same  Tschudi  who  did  so  much  to  formulate  the 
Tell  myth  was  the  inventor  of  the  name  of  this 
hero — a  name,  however,  well  known  in  Switzer- 
land  in  other  connections. 

Who  invented  the  Art  of  Printing?  — Many 
persons  suppose  that  Gutenberg  knew  only  the  art 
of  printing  from  wooden  types,  and  that  Peter 
Schoff'er  was  the  first  to  make  steel  matrixes,  and 
thus  deserves  the  credit  of  being  its  inventor. 
Gutenberg  was  a  metal  worker  and  goldsmith  ;  and 
he  it  was  Avho  invented  the  art  of  printing  from 
metallic  types  in  1450.  The  credit  was  stolen  from 
him  by  his  unscrupulous  assistant,  Johann  Fust  or 
Faust,  and  was  afterwards  by  some  attributed  to  his 
son-in-law,  Peter  Schofter. 


154  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

The  Ppinting-ppess.  —  The  death  of  Henry  YI. 
and  the  ascendency  of  the  House  of  York  (Edward 
IV.,  1461)  bring  us,  within  a  few  years,  to  the 
most  serviceable  agency  in  the  evokition  of  social 
England  —  the  introduction  of  the  iDrinting  press. 
Faulty  text-books  have  it  that  the  earliest  book 
printed  in  England  was  "The  Game  and  Playe  of 
the  Chesse,''  and  that  this  book  was  i3rinted  in 
Westminster  "Abbey"  in  1474. 

It  was  translated  from  the  French  in  that  year, 
and,  although  published  the  following  year  in  Eng- 
land, was  2)ri?ited  in  Bruges.  Moreover,  Caxton  did 
not  set  up  his  printing-plant  until  1476,  and  it  was 
near,  not  inside,  but  outside,  the  church  ;  Green  says 
"in  the  almonry,  a  little  enclosure  containing 
the  almshouses,  near  the  west  front."  The  first 
book  actually  printed  in  England  was  Caxton's 
"  Dictes  or  Sayinges  of  the  Philosophers,"  which 
was  completed  in  November  of  the  year  1477. 

Columbus'  Egg  a  Myth. — Benzoni,  in  his 
"  History  of  the  JS'ew  World"  (1565),  is  said  to  have 
been  the  first  to  tell  the  story  of  Columbus  stand- 
ing the  egg  on  end.  It  is  quoted  with  approval  by 
Washington  Irving,  and  Mr.  Clements  R.  Markham, 
in  his  "  Columbus"  (1897),  says  :  "  Although  it  was 
first  told  fifty  years  after  the  admiral's  death,  it 
may  quite  possibly-  be  founded  on  fact."  It  is  now 
known  to  have  been  Brunelleschi,  the  architect,  and 
not  Columbus,  who  stood  an  egg  on  end,  and  he 
did  it  in  the  simple  way  of  the  story,  so  as  to  silence 


BLUNDERS    IN    GENERAL    HISTORY.  155 

critics,  who  asked  him  how  he  was  going  to 
support  the  dome  of  Sante  Maria  del  Fiori,  the 
cathedral  of  Florence. 

Columbus  was  not  Columbus.  —There  is  also 
some  misunderstanding  associated  with  the  name 
of  the  Great  Discoverer.  Columbus  was  not  his 
paternal  name  any  more  than  it  was  '*  Plantagenet." 

It  was  only  a  borrowed  title — a  sea  term  that 
covered  up  some  early  mystery  of  his  birth.  It 
was  a  name  acquired  from  two  pirates,  or  corsairs, 
father  and  son,  known  by  the  merchants  whom  they 
chased  as  the  Columbi,  from  their  flag,  which 
depicted  a  dove,  Colombo. 

The  great  Columbus  sailed  under  their  flag, 
claimed  them  as  his  relatives,  and  fought  and  jjlun- 
dered  with  them  on  the  high  seas.  So  great  was 
the  terror  inspired  by  the  merciless  sea-rovers  that 
the  very  name  alone  was  a  guarantee  of  non-resist- 
ance. How  unlikely,  then,  the  use  of  a  less  famous 
one,  or  that  the  world  would  use  that  one  regarding 
which  Columbus  himself  has  always  preserved 
silence ! 

Washington  Irving  and  the  Monks  of  New- 
stead.— In  1780  the  lake  near  Xewstead  Abbey 
was  drained  and  deepened,  and  the  workmen  found 
a  large  brass  bookstand  which  had  once  belonged 
to  the  monks.  It  was  shajDed  like  an  eagle,  and  had 
been  thrown  in  the  lake  at  the  dissolution  of  the 
monastery  in  1536.  The  globe  on  which  the  eagle 
stood  was  found  to  be  full  of  documents,  and  Wash- 


156  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

ington  Irving  in  his  book  on  Newstead  states  that 
the  parchments  threw  an  awkward  light  on  the 
monks.  Bja-on  sneers  also  at  the  bold  immorality 
of  the  "  holy  men"  who  once  lived  there.  But  later 
examination  proves  that  the  docmnent  was  only  a 
general  pardon  forced  on  religious  houses  by  Henry 
v.,  and  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  morals  of 
Newstead. 

The  Bopgias.  —  There  is  very  good  reason  to 
believe  that  Alexander  VI.  was  a  worthy  pope  and 
a  great  king,  that  Cesare  Borgia  was  the  defender 
of  the  liberty  of  his  people,  and  that  Lucrezia  Borgia, 
far  from  being  the  modern  Messalina,  was  a  pure 
and  lovable  woman;  that  the  stories  about  the 
crimes  of  the  Borgias  are  inventions  and  calumnies. 

Max  Piccolomini  no  Myth.  —  In  Schiller's 
splendid  trilogy  "  Wallenstein  "  Max  Piccolomini  is 
represented  as  the  son  of  the  field  marshal  Ottavio 
Piccolomini  and  in  love  with  Thekla,  the  daughter 
of  Wallenstein.  But  it  has  been  shown  that  Ottavio 
Piccolomini  was  married  only  five  years  previous  to 
his  death,  and  Thekla  Wallenstein  was  fourteen  in 
1634.  It  is  true,  however,  that  Ottavio  Piccolomini 
had  in  his  household  a  nephew  named  Joseph  Sylvio 
whom  he  dearly  loved,  and  who  was  killed  in  a 
battle  with  the  Swedes  in  March,  1645. 

Don  Carlos  died  a  Natural  Death.— The  drama 
and  the  muse  of  history  have  found  rich  material 
for  imagination  in  the  story  of  Don  Carlos,  the 
second  son  of  King  Philip  II.  of  Spain.     Many  his- 


BLUXDERS    IN    GEXERAL    HISTORY.  157 

tories  state  that  he  was  executed  by  command  of  his 
father,  and  Schiller's  famous  tragedy  turns  on  this 
incident.  It  is  now  well  proved  by  historical  docu- 
ments that  as  the  infanta,  who  had  expressed  deep 
hatred  of  his  father,  was  on  the  point  of  fleeing  from 
Spain,  he  was  arrested  on  the  night  of  Jan.  18-19, 
1568,  and  died  unexpectedly,  but  by  a  natural  death, 
in  prison  at  one  o'clocli  on  the  morning  of  July  23  of 
the  same  year.  The  story  soon  spread  that  he  had 
been  executed,  and  that  Philip  II.  had  also  caused 
his  queen,  Elizabeth  of  Valois,  to  be  poisoned.  She 
died  October  3.  But  the  story  that  she  had  had  illicit 
relations  with  the  young  man  was  a  gross  libel. 

The  Age  of  Champagne.  —  It  is  generally  sup- 
posed that  champagne  is  an  entirely  modern  wine. 
Brillot-Savarin  states  in  his  "Philology  of  Taste" 
that  it  was  first  known  in  the  fourteenth  century. 
There  is  an  apocryphal  story  to  the  eff'ect  that  Charles 
VI.  of  France  gave  a  feast  at  Rheims  in  May,  1397, 
to  the  Roman  Emperor  and  King  Wenceslaus  of 
Bohemia,  who  were  so  pleased  with  this  new  wine 
that  they  and  their  followers  could  not  drink  enough 
of  it  in  a  month  of  steady  drinking.  But  bottles 
were  not  generally  used  till  the  last  century,  and 
"corkage"  was  an  unknown  factor.  The  first 
cork  was  used  by  Perignon,  cellarer  to  the  Abbey  of 
Haute  Villers  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Champagne 
is  said  to  be  first  mentioned  in  print  in  1718,  coupled 
with  the  statement  that  it  had  been  known  for 
twenty  years. 


158  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

The  Stopy  of  the  Iron  Mask.  —  The  history  of 
the  mysterious  man  in  tlie  iron  (or  properly  the 
velvet)  mask  excited  the  curiosity  of  Europe  for 
nearly  two  hundred  years.  It  was  rumored  that 
he  was  a  natural  son  of  Louis  XIV.,  who  having 
been  incarcerated  in  1660,  a  month  after  the  death 
of  Mazarin,  was  kept  at  the  Bastille  until  his  death 
in  1703,  when,  according  to  Voltaire,  he  was  secretly 
buried  in  the  graveyard  of  St.  Paul's  Church. 
After  his  death  every  document  relating  to  him  was 
supposed  to  have  been  burnt;  the  walls  white- 
washed and  the  floors  torn  up,  that  no  trace  of  his 
existence  might  remain.  During  the  eighteenth 
century  no  less  than  eight  persons  were  identified 
with  this  prisoner ;  among  them  the  Due  de  Beau- 
fort whom  Dumas  pictures  in  prison  in  "  Vingt  Ans 
Apres,"  but  who  really  died  at  the  Turkish  assault 
in  Candia,  June  26,  1669 ;  Henry  Cromwell,  second 
son  of  the  Protector;  the  Duke  of  Monmouth, 
natural  son  of  King  Charles  II. ;  an  Armenian 
patriarch ;  Ercole  Matioli,  minister  to  the  Duke  of 
Mantua,  who  was  said  to  have  sworn  to  betray  to 
Louis  XIV.  the  castle  of  Casale,  but  proved  recreant 
to  his  word. 

Benche  tried  to  make  out  that  the  story  was  a 
legend,  but  in  1873  a  book  was  published  in  Paris 
giving  substantial  reasons  for  believing  that  the 
man  in  the  iron  mask  was  Harmoises,  a  noble  of 
Lorraine,  who  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  con- 
spiracy against  Louis  XIV.    He  was  arrested  March 


BLUNDERS    IN    GENERAL    HISTORY.  159 

19,  1673,  and  confined  in  various  prisons,  dying 
finally  at  the  Bastille. 

Louis  Philippe  no  Changeling.  —  Dr.  Hugh 
Macmillan,  in  his  "  Gate  Beautiful,"  asserts  that 
"  Louis  Philippe  had  all  the  low  tastes  and  cowardly 
feelings  of  the  ignoble  race  to  which  he  is  said  to 
have  belonged,  though  seated  on  the  throne  of 
France ;  whereas  the  real  child  of  the  French  king, 
who  was  supposed  to  have  been  exchanged  for  him 
when  he  was  born  because  she  was  a  girl,  exhibited 
all  the  pride  and  dauntless  courage  of  the  Bourbons 
in  her  humble  condition."  The  girl  who  claimed 
to  be  daughter  of  the  Due  d'Orleans  (figalite)  was 
Maria  Stella  Petronilla,  putative  daughter  of  an 
Italian,  Crappini.  She  was  married  first  to  the  earl 
of  New  borough  and  secondly  to  Baron  Sternberg, 
and  the  tribunal  of  Faenza  recognized  her  claims. 
But  the  story  was  wholly  a  fabrication.  Louis 
Philippe's  father  was  also  said  to  be  the  bastard  son 
of  Louis,  Comte  de  Melfort. 

Charlotte  d'Eon  de  Beaumont  was  a  Man.  — 
The  story  once  widely  believed  that  the  Chevalier 
d'Eon  was  a  woman  is  a  complete  fable.  The  man 
who  bore  the  feminine  names  of  Charlotte,  Gene- 
vieve, Louise,  Auguste,  was  born  at  Tonnerre  in  Bur- 
gundy, and  served  in  the  Seven  Years'  War  as  Cap- 
tain of  Dragoons  and  Aide  to  Marshal  Broglio ; 
afterwards  as  secretary  of  Legation  in  London. 
He  certainly  in  later  life  wore  the  dress  of  a  woman 
—  it  is  said  by  command  of  Louis  XVI.,  who  desired 


160  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

him  thus  to  hide  certain  indiscretions.  After  the 
outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  1791,  he  petitioned  the 
National  Assembly  from  England  to  be  allowed  to 
resume  his  rank  in  the  army.  But  his  petition  was 
disregarded  ;  his  pension  was  taken  from  him  and  he 
was  obliged  to  sell  his  library.  As  late  as  1809  it 
was  still  believed  by  men  in  authority  that  he  was 
a  woman,  and  not  till  after  his  death,  May  10,  1810, 
was  the  contrary  definitely  established. 

Moscow  was  not  set  on  fire  by  the  Russians. 
—  Moscow  was  not  destroyed  by  the  Russians  ;  its 
destruction  was  due  to  the  negligence  of  the  French 
soldiers  when  smoking,  and  to  their  rough  cooking 
arrangements.  In  a  town  built  chiefly  of  wood, 
where  fires  were  of  every-day  occurrence  in  spite 
of  the  vigilance  of  police  and  landlords,  the  catas- 
trophe was  inevitable  when  those  care-takers  fled 
and  when  the  French  had,  of  course,  not  thought  of 
organizing  precautions. 

A  legend  that  has  been  accepted  as  truth  for 
eighty  years  cannot,  however,  be  overthrown  by 
mere  deductions,  so  Count  Tolstoi  produces  proof 
in  the  shape  of  letters  written  b}^  the  very  men  who 
are  said  to  have  been  tlie  patriotic  authors  of  the 
fire.  Among  these  alleged  incendiaries  stands 
preeminently  Count  Rostopchin.  He  wrote  to 
the  Emperor  Alexander  to  inform  him  that  on 
the  2d  of  December  fires  had  broken  out  in  the 
ware-houses  and  corn-stores  all  along  the  wall  of 
the  Kremlin,  and  he  was  then  in  doubt  whether 


BLUNDERS    IN    GENERAL    HISTORY.  161 

they  were  the  work  of  the  invaders  or  of  their 
owners. 

A  few  days  later  he  again  wrote  to  Alexander 
accusing  Napoleon  of  the  act,  and  concluding  with 
the  remark  that  if  he  had  known  two  or  three  days 
previously  what  was  about  to  happen,  he  himself 
would  have  set  fire  to  tiie  city,  in  order  to  have  de- 
prived Napoleon  "  of  the  glory  of  saying  that  he 
took  Moscow  and  sacked  and  burnt  it." 

Coronation  Mugs.  —  The  historic  coronation 
mugs  that  were  distributed  to  the  crowds  in  May, 
1897,  at  Moscow  were  not  of  Russian  manufacture, 
but  came  from  Vienna.  The  curious  craze  of  the 
populace  to  obtain  them  resulted  from  a  rumor  that 
those  first  given  out  would  contain  lottery  tickets 
and  ruble  notes.  This,  it  will  be  remembered,  re- 
sulted in  one  of  the  most  appalling  disasters  ever 
known. 

Guillotin  did  not  invent  the  Guillotine.  —  The 
decapitating  machine  employed  in  France  was 
named  after  Dr.  J.  I.  Guillotin,  who  has  the 
reputation  of  being  its  inventor;  but  a  somewhat 
similar  machine  was  used  long  before  he  had  seen 
one. 

The  rude  instrument  used  in  Halifax  between 
1541  and  1650  (m^^e "  Tales  of  a  Grandfather") 
was  the  "  maiden."  A  similar  decapitating  machine 
was  in  France  called  **  Za  demoiselle;''''  in  Italy  it 
was  known  as  the  *'  mannaia.''''  But  unlike  the 
guillotine  they  were  without  any  contrivances  for 


162  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

binding  their  victims,  and  they  chopped  off  heads, 
while  the  French  invention  has  a  sharp  sliding 
knife  that  slices.  All  that  Dr.  Guillotin  himself 
did  was,  in  1759,  loublicly  to  encourage  a  jDrefer- 
ence  for  this  means  of   death  as  being  jDainless. 

Dr.  Guillotin  on  Jan.  21,  1790  (three  years  to  a 
day  before  the  execution  of  Louis  XVI.),  proposed 
that  all  executions  should  take  place  by  decapita- 
tion and  by  a  simple  mechanism.  The  motion  was 
referred  to  a  committee  of  seven,  and  became  a 
law  in  October,  1791.  C.  H.  Sanson  and  Dr. 
Guillotin  tried  to  devise  a  machine  that  should 
meet  all  requirements.  They  examined  various 
German  engravings  of  instruments;  also  Achille 
Bocchi's  engraving  of  the  mannaia,  used  as  early  as 
the  thirteenth  century,  and  the  Scotch  maiden,  which 
is  similar  to  an  instrument  used  in  Persia,  and 
one  used  in  1632  in  Toulouse.  A  German  harpsi- 
chord-maker named  Schmidt  happened  to  come  to 
Sanson's  to  play  duets  with  him,  and  heard  Sanson 
mention  the  matter.  He  exclaimed  in  broken 
French:  "  Wait,  I  think  I  have  what  you  want!'' 
and  with  a  pencil  made  a  drawing.  It  was  the 
guillotine  with  a  crescent  knife  raised  between 
the  posts  and  released  by  a  cord.  Louis  XVI. 
suggested  substituting  a  straight-edge  set  slantingly, 
forming  an  acute  angle.  Experiments  were  made 
on  three  dead  bodies,  and  a  man  named  Guidon 
erected  the  first  guillotine  at  a  cost  of  5,500  francs, 
and  on  April  25,  1792,  a  highwayman  named  Pelle- 


BLUNDERS    IN    GENERAL    HISTORY.  163 

tier  was  executed  by  it.  It  was  at  first  called 
louison  or  louisette ;  but  the  name  guillotine  won 
the  day. 

Guillotin  was  not  its  first  victim.  He  nearly 
became  a  victim  of  the  Revolution,  but  escaped, 
and  after  the  close  of  his  political  career  resumed 
his  duties  as  a  physician,  became  one  of  the  foun- 
ders of  the  Academy  of  Medicine  in  Paris,  and 
died  May  26,  1814,  aged  seventy-six., 

A  New  Bpougham  sweeps  Clean.  —  Lord 
Brougham  did  not  invent  the  carriage  that  bears 
his  name.  It  was  used  in  Paris  long  before  his 
day,  but  in  1837  he  brought  one  to  England  from 
France  and  had  a  coach-maker  build  one  like  it, 
only  lighter,  stronger,  and  more  elegant.  It  became 
popular  and  was  called  a  brougham. 

Jefferson  more  Democratic  than  is  gen- 
erally supposed.  —  It  is  generally  stated  in 
sketches  of  Thomas  Jefferson's  life  that  he  showed 
his  democratic  spirit  by  tying  his  horse  in  front  of 
the  Capitol  and  by  simply  walking  in  to  be  in- 
augurated.  Contemporary  newspaper  accounts 
state  that  he  was  at  that  time  boarding  near  the 
Capitol,  and  that  he  walked  over  to  take  his  part 
in  the  ceremony 


164  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

BLUNDERS  MADE  BY  FAMOUS  AUTHORS  AND 
OTHERS. 

Some  of  Shakespeare's  Slips. 

"  Then  our  ship  has  touched  the  deserts  of  Bohemia," 

says  Shakespeare  in   "The  Winter's  Tale."     The 
ship  bearing  the  infant  Perdita  is  thus  pictured  as 
beino;  driven  on  the  coasts  of  Bohemia,  but  Bohemia 
has  no  seaboard  at  all. 
The  couplet, 

"  Peace,  count  the  clock — 
The  clock  has  stricken  three," 

is  found  in  the  dialogue  between  Brutus  and  Cas- 
sius  in  Shakespeare's  "  Julius  Caesar."  Yet  clocks 
were  not  known  to  the  Romans,  though  sun-dials 
were;  and  striking  clocks  were  not  invented  till 
some  hundreds  of  years  after  Caesar's  death. 

Bacon,  in  his  essay  on  "Vain  Glory,"  says:  "It 
was  prettily  devised  of  ^sop,  the  fly  sat  up  on  the 
axletree  of  the  chariot-wheel  and  said,  '  What  a 
dust  do  I  raise.'"  A  writer  in  **  Notes  and  Queries" 
points  out  that  the  fable  is  by  Laurentius  Ab- 
stemius. 


BLUNDERS    BY    FAMOUS    AUTHORS.  165 

London's  Highest  Ground.  —  A  curious  sign, 
the  Boy  and  Pannier,  in  Panyer  Alley,  Newgate 
street,   reads : 

"  When  you  have  sought  the  city  round, 
Yet  still  this  is  the  highest  ground." 

But  the  old  rhyme  is  not  true.  The  highest  ground 
in  the  city  is  in  Cannon  street,  where  it  reaches 
sixty  feet,  and  not  in  Newgate  Street,  where  it  is 
only  fifty-eight  feet. 

The  Real  Story  of  Robinson  Crusoe.  —  Headers 
have  formed  an  idea  that  because  Robinson  Crusoe 
became  an  unwilling  dweller  on  his  island  through 
shipwreck,  therefore  Selkirk,  the  Scottish  sailor  on 
whose  marvellous  adventures  Defoe  founded  his 
fascinating  story,  must  have  landed  there  through 
like  circumstances.  The  exact  contrary  is  true. 
Selkirk  had  been  roving  about  the  Southern  seas 
as  sailing-master  of  one  of  the  ships  that  set  out 
on  a  privateering  expedition  under  the  famous  navi- 
gator Dampier,  and  being  dissatisfied  with  his  ship 
desired  to  be  put  ashore.  A  few  others  joined  him, 
and  they  remained  on  the  island  of  Juan  Fernandez 
for  several  months  until  their  vessel  returned  for 
them.  But  Selkirk's  lifelong  aversion  to  discipline 
again  manifested  itself,  and  the  next  time  his  ship 
touched  at  Juan  Fernandez  he  was  put  ashore  by 
his  own  request,  in  1704.  All  things  that  could  be 
spared  to  make  him  comfortable  were  freely  given 
—  food,  tools,  clothes,  weapons,  and  ammunition. 


166  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

After  the  expiration  of  four  years  four  months,  he 
was  taken  off  by  another  jDrivateer,  the  "Duke  and 
Duchess."  His  sea-chest,  .cup,  gun,  etc.  (which 
Crusoe  saved  from  the  wreck),  created  some  sensa- 
tion when  they  were  exhibited  in  London  on  his 
return,  in  October,  1711.  They  are  now  in  the 
Society  of  Antiquaries'  Museum,  Edinburgh. 
Robinson  Crusoe,  on  the  other  hand,  must  have 
landed  on  some  island  east  of  Panama,  and  tliere 
is  good  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  the  Island  of 
Tobago.  But  Defoe  blunders  in  locating  Juan 
Fernandez  Island  on  the  eastern  side  of  South 
America. 

Defoe  makes  Anothep  Mistake.  —  Defoe,  in 
his  "  History  of  the  Plague,"  says  he  was  an  eye- 
witness of  the  experiences  he  relates.  Seeing  that 
the  Great  Plague  of  London  did  not  break  out  till 
1G65,  and  that  he  was  born  in  1661,  this  cannot  be 
true.     Of  course  Defoe  wrote  it  as  a  fiction. 

The  Story  of  Baron  Munchausen. — The  Ger- 
man soldier.  Baron  Munchausen,  was  not  the  author 
of  the  book  of  travels  named  after  him.  The 
absurdly  exaggerated  fictions  in  this  book  were 
written  by  an  expatriated  countryman  of  his  named 
R.  E.  Raspe,  who  published  them  in  England  in 
1785.  Raspe  made  the  Baron  the  putative  author, 
having  become  acquainted  with  the  false  stories 
which  this  officer  related,  and  for  which  he  became 
notorious  after  returning  from  his  adventurous 
campaigns  in  the  Russian  service. 


BLUNDERS    BY    FAMOUS    AUTHORS.  167 

The  Wpong"  Bones. —Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  the 
*'  Fortunes  of  Nigel,"  causes  David  Ramsay  to  swear 
"by  the  bones  of  the  immortal  Napier/'  Napier's 
bones  or  "  rod"  were  an  apparatus  for  calculating 
with  ;  the  invention  was  attributed  to  John  Napier 
(1550-1617),  but  in  reality  known  much  earlier. 
They  are  still  said  to  be  made.  It  is  possible  that 
Ramsay's  oath  was  Sir  Walter's  wit. 

A  Mistake  in  "  Ivanhoe."  —  It  is  said  that 
the  Anglo-"  Saxon "  called  the  flesh  of  the  brute 
he  had  only  to  tend  "cow,"  and  that  his  Norman 
master  called  it,  when  prejjared  for  his  festive 
board,  "beef."  The  insinuation  here  is  obvious; 
but  it  is  met  by  the  fact  that  the  Norman  nobles 
called  the  same  flesh  when  alive  "  beef,"  but  that 
"the  Saxon  slave"  — as  he  is  called  in  Scott's 
"  Ivanhoe,"  and  from  whence  started  the  erroneous 
idea  that  all  flesh  was  carried  to  the  castle-hall 
—  always  called  it,  even  when  roasted,  "cow." 
"  Swine  is  called  f)ork  when  carried  to  the  castle- 
hall  to  feast  among  the  nobles."  But  so  it  was  by 
the  nobles  when  alive.  Many  infer  from  this  that 
the  swineherd  rarely  tasted  pig,  whereas  it  was  his 
principal  food. 

Seott  makes  Another  Mistake.  —  What  pur- 
ports to  be  the  true  scene  of  the  murder  of  Amy  is 
one  of  the  chief  jDoints  of  interest  at  Kenilworth 
Castle  :  the  ruins  of  Mervyn's  Tower.  Here  Amy 
was  lured  to  death  by  Varney,  at  the  instigation  of 
the  earl.     But  in  connecting  the  unfortunate  Amy 


168  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

with  that  splendid  ruin,  Sir  Walter  Scott  has  given 
it  an  importance  which  is  mere  fiction.  It  is  even 
very  doubtful  whether  Amy  ever  saw  the  place ; 
at  any  rate,  Kenihvorth  was  not  given  to  Leicester 
until  three  years  after  her  death  (1560). 

A  Gladstonian  Eppop.  —  Gladstone,  in  "Glean- 
ings of  Past  Years,"  Vol.  1,  p.  26,  causes  Daniel  to 
walk  unscathed  through  the  furnace  seven  times 
heated. 

A  Bpowning  Mistake.  —  Dr.  Berdoe,  in  his 
Browning  Cyclopasdia,  states  that  in  Prince  Hohen- 
stiel-Schwangau  we  have  the  description  of  an 
imaginary  meeting  of  the  exiled  Emperor  Napoleon 
III.  with  a  woman  of  the  town.  The  poem  really 
relates  a  supposed  dream  of  the  emperor  at  the 
Tiiileries  in  1868. 

Mistakes  about  Diek  Tuppin.  — The  thief  Dick 
Turpin  never  rode  to  York  on  "  Black  Bess,"  and 
did  none  of  the  things  popularly  associated  with  his 
name.  In  their  original  form  the  imaginary  ex- 
ploits of  this  criminal  were  written,  it  has  been  said, 
by  William  Maginn,  who  must  have  put  them  on 
paper  about  seventy-five  years  after  the  events.  But 
whether  this  be  so  or  not,  Ainsvvorth's  account  of  them 
in  "  Rook  wood  "  was  written  nearly  one  hundred 
years  after  the  criminal's  execution  ( 1739) ,  and  must 
necessarily  be  pure  fiction,  the  newspapers  of  the 
day  being  silent  on  all  points  but  Turpin's  contempt- 
ible meanness.  Even  in  ascertainable  facts  Ains- 
worth  is  wrong.     Turpin  was  not  born  at  Thack- 


BLUNDERS    BY    FAMOUS    AUTHORS.  169 

stead,  but  at  Hampstead ;  the  King  who  was  shot 
was  not  "  Tom,"  but  Matthew,  and  the  affair  took 
place  not  at  Kilburn,  but  in  Whitechapel. 

Cromwell  had  no  Illegitimate  Childpen.— 
The  Abbe  Prevost,  author  of  "  Manon  Lescaut," 
while  he  was  in  London  wrote  a  book  which  pur- 
ported to  be  the  *'  Story  of  Mr.  Cleveland,  natural  son 
of  Cromwell  or  the  English  philosopher."  Part  of  it 
was  published  in  1732,  and  the  whole  work  in  eight 
volumes  in  1739.  An  English  translation  came  out 
in  1734—5.  There  was  no  historical  authority  for 
the  birth  of  any  natural  children  to  Cromwell. 

Milton  in  Eppop. 

'<  Till  the  dappled  dawn  doth  rise, 
And  at  my  window  bid  good-morrow 
Through  the  twisted  eglantine." 

Thus  ends  the  forty-first  line  of  Milton's  "  L'Alle- 
gro."  The  eglantine  does  not  "twist,"  but  Milton 
was  mistaken  in  giving  this  name  to  the  honey- 
suckle. The  eglantine  is  the  prickly  sweet-briar  of 
our  gardens. 

Pope  misled  Wapbupton.  —  Pope,  in  a  note  on 
"  Measure  for  Measure,"  states  that  the  story  was 
taken  from  Cintheo's  novel,  Dec.  8,  Nov.  5,  meaning 
decade  8,  novela  5.  Warburton  in  his  edition  of 
Shakespeare  filled  out  the  contractions  as  December 
8,  November  5. 

Thepe  Nevep  was  a  Hannah  Glasse.  —  Any  one 
who  has  read  Sala's  "  Journal"  will  not  soon  forget 
that  there  is  such  a  book  as  Mrs.  Glasse's  "  Art  of 


170  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Cookery  made  Plain  and  Easy"  (1746).  But  not 
all  may  know  that  "  Hannah  Glasse  "  is  as  much  a 
myth  as  was  Sairey  GamjD's  ^  Mrs.  Harris.  The 
real  compiler,  as  Dilly,  the  publisher,  told  Johnson, 
was  Dr.  John  Hill.  The  choice  of  a  woman's  name 
arose  through  business  prudence  on  the  publisher's 
part.  Nevertheless,  the  alleged  Hannah  has  been 
often  treated  as  a  real  individual,  as,  for  instance, 
in  an  American  publication  wherein  it  is  stated : ' 
"  Mrs.  Glasse  wrote  other  books  on  similar  subjects." 

The  mention  of  Dr.  Johnson  calls  to  mind  his 
erstwhile  pupil,  David  Gar  rick,  and  those  who 
know  anything  of  the  great  actor  perhaps  remem- 
ber that  it  is  Hill  that  figures  in  David's  stinging 
e^Digram :  "His  farces  are  physic  —  his  f)hysic  a 
farce  is  ! "  Another  association  is  the  ironical  prov- 
erb :  "  First  catch  your  hare,"  which,  though  some- 
times attributed  to  *'  Mrs.  Glasse,"  is  not  found  in 
"The  Art  of  Cookery,"  but  in  all  likelihood  was 
suggested  by  the  words,  "  Take  your  hare  when  it 
is  cased,"  ^.e.,  skinned.  '' 

A  Star  that  is  not  a  Star.— 

"Till  clombe  ^  above  the  eastern  bar 
The  horned  moon,  with  one  bright  star 
Within  the  nether  tip." 

iln  Dickens'  "  Martin  Chuzzlewit,"  a  fat  old  woman  "  with  a 
husky  voice  and  a  moist  eye,"  engaged  in  the  profession  of  nurs- 
ing. She  is  always  quoting  her  mythical  friend  Mrs.  Harris,  and 
her  affection  for  the  bottle  is  proverbial.  From  a  part  of  her 
varied   belongings   a  very   stumpy   umbrella  is  called  a  gamp. 

2  Climbed, 


BLUNDERS    BY    FAMOUS    AUTHORS.  171 

The  "star"  mentioned  in  this  quotation,  from 
the  third  part  of  Coleridge's  "Ancient  Mariner," 
is  not  a  star,  but  a  lofty  lunar  peak  from  which  the 
light  of  the  sun  is  reflected,  and  which  may  be  seen 
sometimes  on  clear  evenings,  when  the  moon  is  in 
the  first  quarter,  in  the  shadowed  disc  at  some  dis- 
tance from  the  bright  crescent. 

Byron's  Blunder.  —  The  last  line  of  Byron's 
"  Marino  Faliero  "  reads  : 

*'  The  gory  lieacl  rolls  down  the  Giant's  Steps." 

The  steps  alluded  to  are  in  the  courtyard  of  the 
Ducal  Palace,  Venice,  and  are  known  as  the  Giant's 
Staircase,  because  of  the  colossal  statues  of  Mars 
and  Neptune  on  its  summit;  and  by  the  "gory 
head  "  is  meant  that  of  Marino  Faliero,  one  of  the 
doges  of  Venice.  Unfortunately  this  sovereign  was 
decapitated  before  this  stairway  had  been  built ;  but 
it  is  a  fact  that  he  was  beheaded  in  the  palace. 

A  Mistaken  Pijppheey.  —  In  view  of  the  recent 
"  recrudescence"  of  interest  in  Lord  Byron  and  his 
works,  George  Borrow's  cynical  description  of  By- 
ron's funeral,  in  Chapter  xxxix.  of  "  Lavengro," 
is  rather  amusing.  He  says:  "A  time  will  come 
when  he  will  be  out  of  fashion  and  forgotten." 
Then,  as  if  afraid  to  venture  such  a  prediction,  he 
adds:  "And  yet  I  don't  know;  didn't  he  write 
'  Childe  Harold'  and  that  ode?  Yes,  he  wrote 
^  Childe  Harold  '  and  that  ode.  Then  a  time  will 
scarcely  come  when  he  will  be  forgotten.     Lords, 


172  THE    MISTAKES    AVE    MAKE. 

squires,  and  cockneys  may  pass  away,  but  a  time 
will  scarcely  come  when  '  Childe  Harold  '  and  that 
ode  will  be  forgotten." 

The  Wrong  Sumner.  —  The  Rev.  H.  E.  Haweis, 
in  his  book  "My  Hundred  Thousand  Miles  of 
Travel,"  states  that  he  met  Charles  Sumner  in  1893 
at  San  Francisco,  after  his  sermon  at  the  Golden 
Gate  Hall ;  that  Sumner  went  to  Washington  in  1895, 
and  "  defeated  a  pretty  little  Southern  Pacific  job  ;  " 
that  he  was  in  England  in  1883,  and  tried  in  vain  to 
get  into  St.  James'  Church,  owing  to  the  crush. 
Charles  Sumner  died  on  March  17,  1874.  Mr. 
Haweis  afterwards  tried  to  convince  the  world  that 
he  referred  to  Senator  Charles  A.  Sumner  of  the 
Pacific  slope.  This  Charles  Sumner  was  never  a 
senator. 

Victor  Hugo's  Mathematical  Blunder.  — 
Victor  Hugo  lays  the  scene  of  one  of  his  novels  in 
England,  but  makes  the  drollest  blunders  in  regard 
to  English  life  and  customs.  •  Like  almost  all 
Frenchmen,  he  misspells  English  proper  names. 
For  instance,  he  transforms  the  Firth  of  Forth  into 
the  First  of  the  Fourth  ! 

Dumas  creates  an  English  Village.  —  Alex- 
andre Dumas,  in  '*  Twenty  Years  After,"  brings 
the  fallen  King  Charles  to  a  village  named 
Ryston,  which  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  kingdom ; 
moreover  he  assigned  to  it  a  locality  so  near  Lon- 
don that,  even  if  it  did  exist,  the  journey  from 
Derby   thither  could  not  possibly  have   been   per- 


BLUNDERS    BY    FAMOUS    AUTHORS.  173 

formed  in  one  day,  at  the  period  and  under  the 
circumstances  referred  to  in  tlie  narrative.  His 
whole  account  of  the  execution  as  well  as  of  the 
blowing  up  of  the  felucca  is  an  extravagant  fiction 
which  makes  an  element  of  undesigned  comedy 
in  a  tragedy. 

Caplyle's  Queep  English.  — At  a  sale  that  took 
place  in  London  in  June,  1896,  a  pane  of  glass  said 
to  have  been  inscribed  by  Carlyle  brought  £11  5s. 
The  lines,  quoted  in  the  "  Athenaeum, "  read: 

**  Little  did  my  mother  think, 
That  night  she  cradled  me, 
What  land  I  Avas  to  travel  to, 
Or  what  death  I  should  die. 
Oh,  foolish  thee  !  " 

The  last  line  only  was  by  Carlyle.  But  the  whole 
poem  was  wrongly  copied.     It  reads  : 

"  Little  did  my  mother  think, 
The  day  she  cradled  me, 
What  land  I  was  to  travel  in. 
Or  what  death  I  should  die. 
Oh,  foolish  me  !  " 

The  first  four  lines  are  from  a  well-known  ballad. 

Errors  of  Translation.  —  The  similarity  be- 
tween many  English  and  foreign  words,  even  where 
the  meanings  are  different,  often  mislead  translators 
into  odd  mistakes.  A  translator  of  a  Spanish  book 
caused  a  man  wrestling  with  another  to  "  smell  his 
opponent's  powerful  breath,"  instead  of  "perceiving 


174  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

his  labored  breathing."  The  German  translator  of 
Anna  Karenina,  misled  by  the  Slavonic  epigraph 
of  the  story,  translates  it  to  mean  "  Vengeance  is 
sweet,  I  play  the  ace,"  instead  of  "  Vengeance  is 
mine,  I  will  repay."  The  Slavonic  for  I  is  Az, 
while  the  Russian  is  Ya. 

African  She-goats.  — In  a  book  on  "The  Illus- 
trious Henris,"  published  in  1858,  the  editor  trans- 
lates the  Latin  words  Affra  caj)ella  as  follows : 

"  A  she-goat's  skin  receives  his  father's  bones." 
Mr.  T.  E.  Bridget  points  out  that  Floto,  in  his  his- 
tory of  Henry  IV.,  states  that  the  emperor's  body 
lay  in  a  stone  sarcophagus  in  the  unconsecrated 
chapel  of  St.  Af  ra  at  Spiers.  So  that  Affra  capella, 
the  words  the  Rev.  F.  C.  Hingeston  mistook  for 
African  she-goat,  really  mean  the  Chapel  of  St. 
Afra. 

Hapmless  as  Doves.  —  In  the  New  Testament 
passage,  "Be  ye  therefore  wise  as  serpents  and 
Tiarmless  as  doves,"  the  Greek  word  is  incorrectly 
translated,  though  the  right  meaning  is  indicated  in 
the  margin  as  simple.  It  means  unmixed,  there- 
fore guileless  ;  and  not  hornless,  and  therefore  with- 
out means  of  doing  harm.  Another  odd  misconcep- 
tion is  found  in  the  authorized  version  of  the  Book 
of  Baruch,  where  it  says :  "Prepare  ye  manna  and 
offer  upon  the  altar  of  the  Lord  our  God."  The 
word  manna  there  stands  for  mincha,  an  offering. 

Goggle-eyed  Saints.  —  Wyclif  mistook  the 
Keltic   expression   goggle-eyed,  which  means  with 


BLUNDERS    BY    FAMOUS    AUTHORS.  175 

full,  rolling  eyes,  for  the  Latin  codes  (compare  the 
Greek  Kuklojys,  one-eyed),  and  translated  Mark 
IX.,  47  :  "  It  is  good  to  thee  for  to  entre  gogil-yzed 
into  rewme  of  God,  than  havynge  twey  yzen  for 
to  be  sent  into  helle  of  tier." 

Good  Yeepes  that  are  Bad.  —  Shakespeare 
mistook  the  name  of  the  gougeres,  a  filthy  disease, 
and  called  it  the  good  yeeres.  "  The  good  yeeres 
shall  devour  them  flesh  and  fell."  But  in  this  he 
had  fellowship  in  many  other  writers  of  his  cen- 
tury and  later. 

A  Glove  fop  a  Shoe.  — In  the  English  render- 
ing of  Ruth  IV.,  7,8,  it  reads:  "A  man  plucked 
off"  his  shoe  and  gave  it  to  his  neighbor ;  and  this 
was  a  testimony  in  Israel.  Therefore  the  kinsman 
said  unto  Boaz,  '  Buy  it  for  thee."'  So  he  drew  off 
his  shoe."  The  Hebrew  nagal  is  said  to  mean 
sandal  only  when  it  is  followed  by  regil,  the  foot ; 
but  when  it  stands  by  itself  it  means  glove.  In 
one  of  the  German  versions  it  is  correctly  trans- 
lated hand-schuh,  or  glove. 

Tulips  and  Tupbans.  —  Spenser,  in  his  "  Faerie 
Queene,"  speaks  of  "  old  Cybele  "  as 

"  Wearing-  a  Diaderae  embattild  wide 
With  hundred  turrets  like  a  turribant." 

But  the  word  has  nothing  to  do  with  turrets  or  tops, 
nor  has  it  anything  to  do  with  the  Latin  torquere,  to 
twist.  It  is  said  to  come  from  the  Persian  du,  two, 
and   Icii,  a  fold.     The  word   tulip   has   the  same 


176  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

origin  :  one  of  its  former  names  was  Dalmatian  or 
Turk's  Cap. 

The  Street  of  the  Golden  Dragon.  —  The  Street 
of  the  Golden  Dragon  in  Hong  Kong  is  said  by 
Andrew  Wilson  to  have  derived  its  name  from  the 
call  of  the  Chinese  girls,  who,  sitting  at  the  win- 
dows, would  greet  the  sailors  visiting  them  with  the 
cry  "Come  'long,  Jack."  Hence  it  came  to  be 
known  as  "  Come  'Long''  Street,  which  the  Chinese 
glorified  into  Kum  Lung,  meaning  Golden  Dragon. 

Deceptions  about  Dickens.  — The  "Old  Curi- 
osity Shop,"  in  Portsmouth  Street,  Lincoln's  Inn 
Fields,  was  not  "  immortalized  by  Charles  Dickens." 
The  novelist's  son  calls  the  building  •'  a  complete 
fraud."  At  Broadstairs,  in  Kent,  the  title  of 
*'  Bleak  House  "  has  been  apjDlied  to  a  building  once 
known  as  Fort  House  on  the  cliff  above  the  harbor, 
and  hence  many,  especiall}^  in  those  parts,  believe 
that  "Bleak  House"  was  written  there.  Much  of 
Dickens'  work  was  done  there.  "Bleak  House" 
was  written  elsewhere. 

The  Mouse  Tower.  —  Southey's  poem  of  the 
Mouse  tower  on  the  Rhine  is  founded  on  a  miscon- 
ception. It  was  originally  the  mautthurm  or  toll- 
house, which  became  corrupted  into  Mauseturm,  and 
the  legend  was  manufactured  to  suit. 

Peeled,  but  not  Skinned.  —  In  the  eighteenth 
chapter  of  Isaiah,  messengers  are  said  to  be  sent 
out  to  a  nation  scattered  and  peeled.  A  marginal 
reading  gives  "  outspread  and  polished."     But  the 


BLUNDERS    BY    FAMOUS    AUTHORS.  177 

word  peeled  does  not  signify  stripped  of  skin  or 
pelt,  but  bald,  —  "  pylled  as  one  that  wanteth  heare," 
—  and  hence  robbed,  as  in  the  word  pillage. 

Gpoliep  not  a  Binder.  —  It  is  a  mistake  to 
suppose  that  Grolier,  for  whom  the  well-known 
club  is  named,  was  a  bookbinder;  he  was  a  book 
collector. 

Where  Shelley  was  drowned.  — 

*'  Drowned  by  the  upsetting  of  his  boat  in  the  Gulf  of 
Spezia." 

So  reads  the  epitaph  on  Shelley's  monument 
erected  at  Christchurch,  Hants,  by  his  son,  Sir 
Percy,  and  Lady  Shelle}^ ;  and  dictionaries  and 
encycloj^aedias  also  jDcrpetuate  the  error.  The 
boat  really  foundered  in  the  roads  of  Viaregio. 
The  seaport  of  Viaregio  is  only  fourteen  miles 
northwest  of  Pisa,  while  the  Gulf  of  Spezia, 
following  the  coast-line,  is  not  far  short  of  fifty 
miles. 

Queen  Bess's  Pocket-pistol.  — 

*'  Load  me  well  and  keep  me  clean, 
And  I'll  carry  a  ball  to  Calais  Green," 

is  popularly  supposed  to  be  a  translation  of  the 
Flemish  inscription  on  the  cannon  given  Queen 
Elizabeth  by  the  Low  Countries  in  recognition  of 
her  efforts  to  protect  them  and  their  religion  at 
Dover.  The  "pocket  pistol''  is  now  removed  to  a 
less  conspicuous  part  of  the  castle. 


178  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

The  common  idea  is  that  the  gun  is  able  to  sweep 
the  French  port  which  lies  in  fi-ont  of  it.  The 
Calais  in  question  could  not  refer  to  the  French 
town,  but  to  a  place  called  Calais  Green,  about  one 
and  a  half  miles  from  Dover ;  but  according  to  the 
"  Daily  Telegraph  "  of  May  26,  1894,  the  refrain  is, 
however,  "  completely  erroneous,"  as  the  words 
really  mean : 

"  Over  hill  and  dale  I  can  throw  a  ball ; 
My  name  is  Breaker  of  Mound  and  Wall." 

An  Untrustworthy  Gravestone.— 

Tho  :  Parr  of  y«  county  of  Sallop  Borne  in  A^:  1483. 
He  lived  in  y^  reignes  of  Ten  Princes  viz  :  K.  Edw.  4 
K.  Ed.  5  K.  Rich.  3  K.  Hen.  7  K.  Hen.  8  K.  Edw.  6 
Q.  Ma.  Eliz.  K.  Ja.  and  K.  Charles  Aged  152  years  and 
was  Buried  Here  Novemb  15  1635. 

The  inscription  is  over  the  grave  of  Old  Parr  in 
the  south  transept  of  Westminster  "Abbey;"  but 
though  the  gravestone  is  in  such  a  place,  neverthe- 
less it  is  absolutely  untrustworthy. 

Parr's  pretensions,  like  those  of  another  veteran 
impostor,  Henry  Jenkins,  aged  169,  were  ruth- 
lessly exposed  by  the  late  Mr.  W.  T.  Thorns  (the 
original  editor  of  "  Notes  and  Queries  ") .  Parr  was 
an  exceptionally  old  man,  yet  certainly  he  lived 
not  more  than  a  year  or  two  over  a  century. 

The  fabulists  say  his  son  lived  to  the  age  of  113, 
his  grandson  to  109,  his  great-grandson  to  124,  his 


BLUNDERS    BY    FAMOUS    AUTHORS.  179 

great-granddaughter,  who  died  in  Skiddy's  Alms- 
house, Cork,  October,  1792,  to  103.  To  these  may 
be  added  another  grandson,  John  Newell,  Esq  ,  of 
Michaelstown,  Ireland,  who  died  at  the  age  of  102. 
But  the  fact  is  that  he  left  no  children  ;  for  his  son 
lived  but  ten  weeks  and  his  daughter  only  three 
weeks ! 

The  King's  Libpapy.  — Above  the  south  door 
in  the  stately  gallery  in  the  British  Museum  known 
as  the  King's  Library  there  is  an  inscri23tion  which 
runs  as  follows : 

This  library,  collected  by  George  the  Third,  was 
given  by  His  Most  Gracious  Majesty  George  the  Fourth, 
in  the  third  year  of  bis  reign,  a.d.  mdcccxxiii. 

This  statement  is  misleading.  When  George  the 
Fourth  was  hard  pressed  for  mone}^  he  desired  to 
sell  his  father's  collection,  and  at  one  time  the  books 
were  in  danger  of  getting  into  the  hands  of  a  royal 
purchaser  abroad.  The  king  was  approached  on 
the  subject,  and  a  bargain  was  struck  that  he  should 
be  secretly  paid  for  the  library,  but  that  it  should 
be  given  out  that  he  had  presented  it  to  the  nation. 
For  his  alleged  generosity  his  Majesty  was  actually 
thanked  by  the  House  of  Commons  in  terms  of  the 
*'  strongest  gratitude." 

The  "Daily  Chronicle,"  March  21,  1895,  says: 
'•'  A  tradition  of  the  British  Museum  asserts  that  a 
l^ortion  of  the  library  was  actually  placed  on  board 
a  ship  to  be  sent  to  Ftussia.     In  the  centre  of  the 


180  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

king's  library  is  displayed  the  letter  of  gift  of  the 
collection  from  George  the  Fourth  to  Lord  Liver- 
pool. Such  is  certainly  worth  keeping  as  a  curios- 
ity;  still,  an  official  statement  as  to  the  true  facts  of 
the  case  ought  to  be  appended." 

The  Iron  Duke.  — This  sobriquet  for  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  came  from  an  iron  steamship  plying 
between  Liverpool  and  Dublin  ;  its  owners  called  it 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  but  the  public,  as  they  will, 
nicknamed  it  the  "  Iron  Duke."  The  humorous 
association  was  a  transference  obviously  inevitable. 

Mepcatop  should  be  Kpemep.  —  Mercator  is 
proi^erly  Gerhard  Kremer,  a  Belgian  geographer, 
born  in  1512.  And  the  system  of  map-drawing 
eilled  Mercator's  should  therefore  be  called 
Kremer's  j) rejection.  But,  according  to  the  pe- 
dantic custom  of  the  time,  his  name,  meaning  a 
merchant,  was  Latinized  into  "Mercator."  GilPs 
"Student's  Geography"  says  the  inventor's  real 
name  was  Kauffman,  but  this  is  wronff. 


MISQUOTATIONS.  181 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

MISQUOTATIONS   AND  OTHER  LITERARY   STUMBLING- 
BLOCKS. 

Do  not  quote,  but  if  You  do,  quote  Cop- 
reetly.  —  Any  one  depending  on  the  memory  for 
quotations  is  almost  certain  to  make  verbal  alter- 
ations, and  sometimes  will  quite  change  the  sense- 
There  are  few  things  more  vexatious  than  to  hear 
hackneyed  quotations  introduced  into  common 
speech,  unless  it  is  to  hear  them  misquoted. 

As  generally  quoted,  the  line  from  "Richard 
III,"  Act  I.,  Scene  i.,  beginning  "  Now  is  the  win- 
ter of  our  discontent,"  is  made  to  mean  :  "At  this 
present  time  we  are  suffering."  But  the  follow- 
ing line,  "  Made  glorious  summer  by  this  sun  of 
York,"  shows  that  the  "now"  modifies  the  verb 
"made,"  and  this,  of  course,  gives  the  words  a 
diametrically  opposite  meaning. 

So  with  the  line  from  "  Troilus  and  Cressida,"  Act 
III.,  Scene  iii.,  "  One  touch  of  nature  makes  the 
whole  world  kin ;  "  for  whenever  quoted  it  inva- 
riably deviates  from  the  original  meaning.  The 
"  touch  of  nature  "  is  now  used  to  mean  a  touch  of 
joy,  or  the  wound  of  sorrow,  or,  indeed,  any  sus- 
ceptibility that  opens  a  source  of  sympathy  to  all 


182  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

men.  But  all  this  was  far  from  the  mind  of 
Shakespeare.  What  he  intended  to  depict  was 
foolish  Jmmanity  united  in  2^1'aising  everything 
that  happened  to  be  merely  new  fashioned,  as  the 
context  will  show : 

**  One  touch  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin, 
That  all,  with  one  consent,  praise  new-born  gawds, 
Though  they  are  made  and  moulded  of  things  past." 

Equally  interesting  are  these  lines  from  the 
"  Tempest,"  and  found  on  Shakespeare's  monu- 
ment in  Westminster  "Abbey": 

"  The  cloud-capp'd  towers,  the  gorgeous  palaces, 
The  solemn  temple,  the  great  globe  itself, 
Yea,  all  which  it  inhabit,  shall  dissolve; 
And  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  this  vision 
Leave  not  a  wreck  behind." 

But  by  referring  to  Act  IV.,  Scene  i.,  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  penultimate  line  is  a  transposition, 
and  that  another  has  been  omitted.  In  Clark  and 
Wright's  text  the  lines  run  thus : 

"  And  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  this  vision. 
The  cloud-capped  towers,  the  gorgeous  palaces, 
The  solemn  temples,  the  great  globe  itself. 
Yea,  all  which  it  inhabit,  shall  dissolve, 
And,  like  this  insubstantial  pageant  faded, 
Leave  not  a  rack  behind." 

It  is  noticeable  that  "wreck"  in  one  line  be- 
comes "  rack  "  in  the  corresponding  line.     Imagine 


MISQUOTATIONS.  183 

the  absurdity  of  a  "vision"  leaving  behind  it 
"  a  wrecks  What  Shakespeare  actually  wrote 
was  "  rack,"  and  what  he  meant,  as  in  other  pas- 
sages as  well,  was  in  the  sense  of  drifting  vapor ; 
cf.  ♦•  Hamlet,"  II.,  ii.,  506  ;  "  Antony,"  IV.,  xiv.,  10, 
etc.  Thus  Shakespeare  is  not  properly  quoted 
even    on   his   monument. 

Another  Misquoted  Epitaph. —Wren's  famil- 
iar epitaph  is  frequently  misprinted  "  Si  monumen- 
tum  quceris  circumsjncey  The  word  which  the 
great  architect's  son  wrote  in  the  inscri|)tion  over 
the  north  transept  door  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  was 
not  '' queer  is,'"'  but  ''requires.'''  The  usually  reli- 
able "  Murray's  Handbook  to  London"  inserts  the 
word  "  qucEris  "  in  the  inscription. 

Coleridge  Mispepresented.  —  Very  few,  if  put 
to  the  test,  could  complete  correctly  Coleridge's 
line :  "  W^ater,  water,  everywhere."  The  almost 
universal  rendering  is  :  "  And  not  a  drop  to  drink." 
The  "  Echo"  of  March  19,  1895,  prints  it  thus,  and 
in  quotation  marks  too  !  Wliat  Coleridge  wrote  in 
"The  Ancient  Mariner"  was:  "Nor  any  drop  to 
drink." 

Others  of  the  Same  Sort.  —  Another  well- 
known  quotation  from  "The  Fire  Worshippers" 
suffers  in  the  first  line:  "'Tvvas  ever  thus  from 
childhood's  hour  "  is  the  usual  reading.  What 
Thomas  Moore  actually  says  is:  "Oh,  ever  thus.'' 
Misquoters  also  nonsensically  interject  "happy" 
between  "  childhood's  "  and  "  liour  ;  "  the  comple- 


184  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

mentaiy  line  being:  "  IVe  seen  my  fondest  hopes 
decay." 

Tennyson's  "Irresponsible  indolent  reviewers" 
is  frequently  misquoted  as  "  Irresponsible  ignorant 
reviewers." 

'*  Fresh  fields  and  pastures  new"  should  be, 
according  to  Milton's  "  Lycidas,"  line  193,  "Fresh 
woods  and  pastures  new ; "  and  to  correct  the 
erratum,  "The  human  form  divine,"  we  must  go 
to    his    "Paradise   I^ost,"   Book    III.,    and    read: 

"...    Thus  with  the  year 
Seasons  return;  but  not  to  me  returns 
Day,  or  the  sweet  approach  of  even  or  morn, 
Or  sight  of  vernal  bloom,  or  summer's  rose, 
Or  flocks,  or  herds,  or  human  face  divine." 

"  Spare  the  rod  and  spoil  the  child  "  is  not  from 
the  Bible.  It  may  be  as  quoted  in  "  Hudibras," 
Part  11. ,  Canto  i.,  verse  45,  either  a  misquotation 
or  a  quotation  attributed  to  the  wrong  source. 
Certainly  Solomon  did  not  say  it.  What  he  said 
was:  "He  that  spareth  the  rod  hateth  his  son." 

And  the  word  "  rod  "  in  this  connection  does  not 
stand  necessarily  for  a  leather  strap  or  a  willow 
stick,  but  as  a  symbol  of  guidance  and  correction. 
Compare  :  "  His  rod  and  His  staff  they  comfort  me." 

In  Gray's  "Elegy"  will  be  found  the  correction 
of  "The  even  tenor  of  their  way;"  Gray  wrote 
"  The  noiseless  tenor  of  their  way." 

"  The  end  justifies  the  means  "  is  a  free  transla- 


MISQUOTATIONS.  185 

tion  of  "  Cui  licitus  est  finis,  etiam  licent  media.^'' 
"  Where  the  end  is  lawful,  the  means  thereto  are 
lawful  also  " — the  maxim  of  the  Jesuit  writer, 
Busenbaum.  The  reference  is  his  "Medulla  Theo- 
logize Moralis,"  and  the  precise  place  6.  6.  2. 

Fupthep  Instances. —  "  When  Greek  meets 
Greek,  then  comes  the  tug  of  war,"  sliould  be,  if  cor- 
rectly quoted,  "  When  Greeks  joined  Greeks,  then 
was  the  tug  of  war"  (see  Nathaniel's  "Alexander 
the  Great,"  Act  X.,  Scene  ii.),  or  if  one  wishes  to 
make  the  present  tense  aj^plicable  to  it,  then  use 
"joins,"  not  "  meets." 

"  Every  mickle  makes  a  muckle  "  is  a  misrender- 
ing  of  a  familiar  Scotch  saying,  and  is  absurd. 
"Mickle"  and  "  muckle"  are  different  spellings  of 
one  and  the  same  word,  but  "  mickle  "  is  generally 
understood  to  mean  "little;"  even  then  the  inter- 
pretation is  hardly  warranted,  for  it  is  obvious  that 
every  "little"  will  not  make  a  "much,"  though 
many  "littles"  may.  The  true  rendering  runs : 
"  Mony  a  little  maks  a  meikle,"  meaning  in 
English,  "  Many  smalls  make  a  big." 

A  vulgar  (and  sometimes  intentional)  error  of 
misquoting  the  conclusion  of  our  "  duty  toward  our 
neighbor"  makes  it  run,  "  to  do  my  duty  in  that 
state  of  life  unto  which  it  has  pleased  God  to  call 
me,"  whereas  the  Catechism  says,  "unto  which  it 
shall  please  God  to  call  me."  Dickens  makes  the 
same  error  in  "  Bleak  House"  (see  Chaps,  iii.  and 

XXVIII.). 


186  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE.     ' 

"  You  have  hit  the  nail  on  the  head  "  ("  Rabelais," 
Book  III.,  Chap,  xxxiv.).  Unthinking  people 
almost  always  say  the  "  right  nail,"  which  is  absurd. 
The  much  more  correct  meaning  is:  "He  who  is 
quick  to  use  his  advantages  hits  the  nail  on  the 
head,  while  others  hammer  round  it,"  and  observa- 
tion will  prove  that  the  reference  to  the  "right 
nail "  means  this  in  nine  instances  to  one  where  it 
is  a  contradistinction  to  the  finger-nail. 

**  The  Knights  are  dust, 

And  their  good  swords  are  rust ; 

Their  souls  are  with  the  saints,  we  trust." 

This  is  a  misquotation  found  in  "  Ivanhoe," 
Chap.  VIII.,  and  elsewhere  often  repeated.  The 
correct  lines  are  : 

"  The  Knight's  bones  are  dust, 

And  his  good  sword  rust ; 

His  soul  is  with  the  saints,  I  trust." 

(Coleridge,  "  The  Knight's  Tomb.") 

"He  that  runs  may  read"  should  be  "he  may 
run  that  readeth  it." 

Quotations  like  Ipon-fllings  cluster  around 
Some  Famous  Men.  —  Allied  with  misquotations 
are  sententious  sayings  wrongly  attributed  to 
famous  persons.  Like  iron-filings  around  a  mag- 
net, witty  remarks  are  apt  to  attach  themselves  to 
some  person  with  a  reputation  for  cleverness. 
Thus  many  brilliant  jetix  cVesirrit  are  fathered  on 


MISQUOTATIONS.  187 

Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan,  who  took  them  from 
D^A.rgenson  and  otliers.  Abraham  Lincoln  is  made 
to  originate  a  great  number  of  witty  stories.  Thomas 
G.  Appleton  did  not  invent  the  name  for  Nahant, 
"  Cold  Roast  Boston  ; "  nor  did  he  wish  that  some  one 
would  exiDOse  a  shorn  lamb  on  the  corner  of  Park 
Street,  that  the  Lord  might  temper  the  wind  to  it. 

Talleyrand  and  Foueh^.  —  Talleyrand  did  not 
invent  the  expression,  "It  is  the  beginning  of  the 
end  "  :  it  may  be  found  in  Shakespeare's  "  Midsum- 
mer Night's  Dream  "  (Act.  V.,  Scene  i.).  Neither 
did  he  say  of  the  Bourbons,  "  lis  ii'ont  rien  aj^pris 
ni  rien  oublie,^''  "  They  have  learned  nothing  and  for- 
gotten nothing."  It  is  found  in  a  letter  written  in 
January,  179G,  by  the  Chevalier  de  Panat  to  Mallet 
du  Pan.  Nor  again  did  he  invent  the  phrase  ' '  Words 
were  given  man  to  disguise  his  thoughts"  ("  Xa 
jmrole  a  eU  clonn^e  a  rhomme  pour  dcguiser  sa 
pensee'''').  Voltaire  uses  it  in  his  fourteenth  dia- 
logue, and  it  is  quoted  by  Oliver  Goldsmith  in  "  The 
Bee."     It  really  goes  back  to  a  hoary  antiquity. 

"It  is  worse  than  a  crime:  it  is  a  blunder." 
Talleyrand  was  not  the  author  of  these  words, 
neither  is  it  a  correct  quotation.  In  their  original 
form  the  words  were  by  Josej^h  Fouche  ^  (1763- 
1820),  Minister  of  Police  under  Napoleon.  "It  is 
worse  than  a  crime:  it  is  political  fault,  words 
which  I  record  because  they  have  been  repeated 
and  attributed  to  others." 

1"  Memoirs  of  Fouche." 


188  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

The  aphorism  Le  style  c'est  Vhomme  would  apply 
still  more  forcibly  if  it  were  restored  to  the  form 
which  Biiffon  gave  it :  Le  style  c'est  rhomme  meme 
—  is  the  very  man. 

Words  that  Some  Great  Men  never  spoke.  — 
Dr.  Johnson  is  said  to  have  said,  "  Let  us  take  a  walk 
down  Fleet  Street"  ("Old  and  New  London,"  Vol. 
I.,  p.  34).  G.  A.  Sala,  in  his  "  Life  and  Adventures," 
says:  "To  this  periodical  I  gave  the  name  of 
'  Temple  Bar,'  and  from  a  rough  sketch  of  mine  of 
the  old  Bar,  which  blocked  the  way  in  Fleet  Street, 
]\[r.  Percy  Macquoid  drew  an  admirable  frontispiece. 
As  a  motto  I  imagined  a  quotation  from  Boswell : 
*  "  And  now,  sir,"  said  Dr.  Johnson,  "we  will  take  a 
walk  down  Fleet  Street." '  To  the  best  of  my  knowl- 
edge and  belief,  Dr.  J.  never  said  a  word  about  taking 
a  walk  down  Fleet  Street ;  but  my  innocent  super- 
cherie  was,  I  fancj^  implicitly  believed  in  for  at  least 
a  generation  by  the  majority  of  magazine  readers." 

The  doctor's  exact  words,  "Let  us  take  a  walk 
down  Cheapside,"  are  found  in  George  Lewes' 
"  History  of  Philosophy."  They,  or  the  somewhat 
similar  ones  of  Boswell,  must  have  been  running 
through  Sala's  mind  at  the  time. 

An  Epitaph  Falsely  Attributed.  — The  well- 
known  epitaph : 

"  Sidney's  sister,  Pembroke's  mother, 
Death,  ere  thou  hast  slain  another 
Learn'd  and  fair  and  good  as  she, 
Time  shall  throw  a  dart  at  thee," 


MISQUOTATIONS.  189 

on  the  sister  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  author  of 
"Arcadia,"  is  usually  ascribed  to  Ben  Jonson  and 
placed  in  the  editions  of  his  works  ;  but  it  is  found  in 
a  manuscrij)t  collection  of  William  Browne's  f)oems 
in  the  British  Museum  (Lansdowne  MS.,  No.  777), 
and  Sir  Egerton  Brydges  ascribes  the  authorship  to 
him  in  his  edition  of  Browne's  poems. 

In  Westminster  "  Abbey  "  "  Rare  Ben  Jonson's  " 
patronymic  is  misspelled  with  an  "h"  in  three 
different  inscriptions. 

Cambponne  at  Waterloo.  —  The  story  is  often 
repeated  that  at  the  battle  of  Waterloo  (June  18, 
1815)  Hugh  Baron  Halkett  (pronounced  Hacket) 
demanded  that  General  Cambronne  should  surren- 
der and  that  Cambronne  replied:  ''La  garde  meurt 
et  [mais]  ne  se  rend  pas.''''  Cambronne  all  his  life 
long,  in  public  and  in  private,  denied  having  said 
the  words  attributed  to  him,  and  an  eye-witness 
declares  that  his  words  as  his  horse  was  shot  under 
him  were:  "  Je  me  rends,''"  "I  surrender."  The 
words  were  invented  by  a  Paris  journalist,  Rouge- 
mont,  two  days  after  the  battle,  in  the  "  Independ- 
ant,"  and  are  engraved  on  a  monument  to  Cam- 
bronne at  Nantes.  Other  French  writers,  Victor 
Hugo,  for  instance,  in  "  Les  Miserables,"  declare 
that  Cambronne's  only  exclamation  was  the  untrans- 
latable word,  "  Merde !  " 

The  famous  words  :  "  Up,  Guards,  and  at  them!" 
were  never  uttered  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington  at 
Waterloo :  and,  moreover,  it  was  not  the  Guards, 


190  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

but  tlie  52d  Light  Infantry,  who  broke  the  advanc- 
ing column  of  the  French  Imperial  Guards  in  the 
final  charge. 

And  here  must  be  thrown  overboard  another 
cherished  tradition.  Who  does  not  know  Byron''s 
lines  —  "Within  a  window'd  niche  in  that  high  hall 
sat  Brunswick's  fated  chieftain  "  — -referring  to  the 
revelry  in  the  ballroom  of  the  Duchess  of  Richmond 
at  Brussels  the  night  before  Waterloo,  wiiich  was 
suddenly  interrupted  by  "  the  cannons'  opening 
roar"?  The  "  high  hall"  has  been  recently  the 
subject  of  a  most  animated  discussion,  and  has  been 
found  to  be,  alas  !  nothing  more  than  a  coachmaker's 
low-roofed  show-room  hired  by  the  duchess  for  the 
occasion.  It  still  may  be  seen  in  the  Rue  de  la 
Blanchisserie  by  the  inquisitive  tourist. 

Galileo  did  not  say  E  pup  si  Muove.  —  The  story 
that  Galileo,  when  compelled  by  the  Inquisition  to 
recant  and  confess,  in  June,  1633,  muttered,  ''And 
yet  it  does  move,"  and  that  he  had  his  eyes  put  out 
in  consequence,  is  a  late  fiction.  He  remained  in 
confinement  only  three  days,  and  when  released  lived 
in  the  villa  Medici,  occupied  by  the  Tuscan  ambassa- 
dor.    He  afterwards  returned  on  foot  to  Sienna. 

Louis  XIV.  and  the  State.  —  There  is  no  historic 
foundation  for  the  story  that  Louis  XIV.,  a  boy 
under  sixteen,  strode  into  Parliament  in  April, 
1695,  and  flourishing  his  riding-whip  exclaimed  to 
the  president  of  Parliament:  *'  L'etat!  c'est  moi, 
monsieur !  " 


MISQUOTATIONS.  191 

Kosciusko   and  the  End  of  Poland.  —  It   is 

frequently  stated  in  histories  that  Kosciusko,  at  the 
battle  of  Maciejowice,  Oct.  10,  1794,  as  he  fell  from 
his  horse,  exclaimed,  ''  Finis  Polonice,''''  "The  end 
of  Poland." 

**  And  Freedom  shrieked  as  Kosciusko  fell." 

In  a  letter  that  he  wrote  Oct.  31,  1803,  he  dis- 
tinctly repudiates  having  made  any  such  derogatory 
remark.  *'  It  would  be  a  crime  in  the  mouth  of  any 
Pole,  much  more  in  mine." 

Remarks  attributed  to  Wrong  Person.  — ^N'a- 
poleon  did  not  say,  "  Austria  is  always  behind  with 
an  idea,  with  an  army,"  but  William  Pitt  said  :  "  The 
gentlemen  of  Vienna  are  always  behindhand  with 
an  idea,  a  year,  and  an  army."  Neither  did  Napo- 
leon say,  "  Scratch  the  Russian  and  you  will  find 
the  Tartar"  {^'Orattez  le  Russe,  voics  trouverez  le 
Cosaque ")  ;  it  was  said  by  Prince  Karl  Josef  de 
Ligne  ;  nor  the  phrase,  "  lie  is  fond  of  washing  his 
soiled  linen  in  public  ;  "  it  is  Voltaire's. 

Huss  did  not  say  "  Saneta  Simplieitas  "  or  pun 
on  his  Own  Name. —The  story  goes  that  when 
Huss  was  bound  to  the  stake  an  old  woman  came 
bringing  a  bundle  of  faggots  and  threw  it  on  the  pile 
which  was  to  consume  him,  and  that  Huss  ex- 
claimed, "  0  Saneta  Simplieitas!''''  ("Oh,  holy  sim- 
plicity !  ") ,  and  that  immediately  after  he  uttered  this 
prophecy,  which  contains  a  punning  reference  to 
the  meaning  of  his   Slavonic  name,  Huss  {gtts,  a 


192  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

^oose)  :  "  This  day  ye  burn  a  goose,  but  in  a  hun- 
dred years  a  white  swan  will  come,  which  ye  will 
not  be  able  to  burn.  "  ' 

It  is  a  pure  fabrication.  Neither  is  it  certain  that 
Luther  said :  "  Here  I  stand ;  I  have  no  other  alter- 
native ;  God  help  me  !  Amen."  ^ 

Only  the  last  four  words  are  historic. 

All  is  lost  save  Honor. —Francois  I.  in  an- 
nouncing to  his  mother  the  capture  of  Pavia,  Feb. 
24,  1525,  did  not  write,  "  Tout  est  perdu  fors  Vhon- 
neury  His  autograph  letter  still  exists.  He  wrote : 
"Madame,  that  I  make  you  acquainted  with  the 
whole  extent  of  my  misfortune  I  will  say,  that  of  all 
that  I  had  nothing  remains  to  me  except  honor  and 
life."  ("Z)e  toutes  choses  ne  m'est  demeurS  que 
Vhoniieur,  et  la  vie  qui  est  saulvey) 

The  Crime  of  Youth.  — The  elder  Pitt  did  not 
use  the  expression  "  The  atrocious  crime  of  being  a 
young  man,"  in  his  reply  to  Walpole  on  being 
taunted  on  account  of  his  youth.  The  words  were 
composed  and  reported  in  the  "  Gentleman^s  Maga- 
zine "  by  Dr.  Johnson,  who  was  not  present,  but 
who,  from  an  abstract  communicated  to  him,  colored 
Pitt's  speech  "  with  his  own  peculiar  style  and  dic- 

1"  Heut  braten  sie  eine  Gans, 
Dae  bin  ich,  armen  Hans! 
Nach  hundert  Jahren  kommt  ein  Schwan, 
Den  werden  sie  ungebrateu  I'an." 

2  "  Hier  stehe  ich;  ich  kann  nicht  anders;  Gott  helfe  mir! 
Amen." 


MISQUOTATIONS.  193 

tion."  Johnson  is  reported  as  saying,  "  That  speech 
I  wrote  in  a  garret  in  Exeter  street." 

Shakespeare  vs.  Barnfleld.  —  "  The  Passionate 
Pilgrim  "  can  of  course  be  found  in  any  volume  of 
Shakespeare,  but  the  latter  part,  beginning  with  : 

"  As  it  fell  upon  a  day 
In  the  merry  month  of  May, 
Sitting  in  a  pleasant  shade, 
Which  a  grove  of  myrtle  made," 

was  not  composed  by  him,  but  by  Richard  Barnfield, 
who  called  it  an  "  Address  to  the  Nightingale." 
Ellis  says  in  his  *'  Specimens,"  Vol.  II. :  "  This 
song,  often  attributed  to  Shakespeare,  is  now  con- 
fidently assigned  to  Barnfield ;  it  is  found  in  his 
book  of  '  Poems  in  Divers  Humours,'  published  in 
1598." 

Other  Proverbs.  —  *'  Blude  is  thicker  than 
water."  Because  this  proverb  is  found  in  "  Guy 
Mannering,"  Chap,  xxxviii.,  it  is  nearly  always 
ascribed  to  Scott,  but  it  was  very  common  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  It  is  found  as  early  as  1670 
in  John  Ray's  and  other  collections  of  proverbs. 

"  Evir  communications  corrupt  good  manners" 
was  not  composed'%y  St.  Paul,  but  by  Menander, 
the  Grecian  comic  poet,  and  most  likely  the  ajDostle 
was  onl}'^  using  an  already  familiar  proverb. 

"  God  tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb" 
has  a  sufficiently  biblical  ring  about  it  to  account 
for  the  common   impression  that  it  appears  in  a 


194  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

passage  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  original  source 
is  not  known.  It  occurs  in  Sterne's  "  Sentimental 
Journey,"  but  it  is  much  older  than  that,  for  in  a 
collection  of  proverbs  published  as  far  back  as  1594 
we  find  "  Dieu  misure  lefroid  a  la  brebis  tondue'''' 
(  "  God  proportions  the  cold  to  the  shorn  lamb"). 

A  person  w^ishing  to  convey  a  message  of  con- 
dolence to  a  woman  who  had  lost  her  husband, 
wrote  it:  ''God  tempers  the  wind  to  the  stolen 
lamb."  "  In  the  midst  of  life  we  are  in  death" 
is  also  wrongly  taken  to  be  from  the  Bible.  It 
was  transferred  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
from  an  old  German  hymn  in  Latin — an  antiphon 
said  to  have  been  composed  by  Notker,  a  monk 
of  St.  Gall,  in  911,  while  watching  some  workmen 
building  a  bridge  at  Martinsbriicke,  in  peril  of 
their  lives.  It  forms  the  groundwork  of  Luther's 
antiphon,  "  De  Morte."  Nor  is  the  well-known  line, 
**  The  merciful  man  is  merciful  to  his  beast,"  to  be 
found  in  the  Scriptures,  though  "  A  righteous  man 
regardeth  the  life  of  his  beast "  may  be  (Proverbs 
XII.,  10).  On  the  other  hand,  comparatively  few 
persons  seem  aware  that  the  expression  "  The  skin 
of  my  teeth"  appears  in  Job  xix.,  20. 

The  every-day  quotation  "  Every  man  has  his 
price  "  is  evidently  a  misquotation  of  Sir  Robert 
Walpole's  words:  referring  to  certain  factious  or 
profligate  adversaries  and  their  adherents  resembling 
themselves,  he  said, ' '  All  these  men  have  their  price ! " 
{Vide  Cox's  "  Life  of  Walpole,"  Vol.  L,  p.  757.) 


MISQUOTATIONS.  195 

A  Nation  of  Shopkeepers.  —  It  is  commonly 
thought  that  Napoleon  the  First  was  the  author  of 
the  expression  "  a  nation  of  shopkeepers."  Even 
Wheeler,  in  his  "  Names  of  Fiction, "thus  attributes 
it:  "A  contemptuous  appellation  bestowed  upon 
the  English  by  Napoleon  Bonaparte."  But  it  was 
used  by  Adam  Smith  in  his  "Wealth  of  Nations," 
when  Napoleon  was  only  six  years  old,  and  at  that 
time  every  English  statesman  knew  it  "  by  heart." 
Through  translation  the  phrase  naturally  caught 
the  fancy  of  French  politicians,  and  some  twenty 
years  later  its  popularity  was  permanently  assured 
by  Barere,  who,  in  the  French  Convention  of  June 
11,  1794,  publicly  bestowed  the  already  familiar 
catch-phrase  upon  England.  He  said,  in  allusion 
to  Howe's  battle  of  June  1st:  "Let  Pitt,  then, 
boast  of  his  victory  to  his  nation  of  shopkeepers." 

Sheep  and  Tar.  —  The  English  sometimes 
speak  of  "Losing  a  ship  for  a  ha'p'orth  of  tar." 
But  who  ever  heard  of  a  ship  the  timbers  of  which 
required  tar  to  hold  them  together?  Substitute 
'*  sheep  "  for  "  ship  "  and  the  absurdity  no  longer 
appears,  for  clearly  the  allusion  is  to  the  shep-  • 
herd's  economical  practice  of  marking  his  flock. 
It  is  as  well  to  compare : 

"And  judge  you  now  what  fooles  those  are 
Will  loose  a  hog  i  for  a  ha'p'orth  of  tar." 

("  Maronides  "  (Geo.  Philip's),  1673,  Bk.  VI.,  p.  22.) 

1  "  Hog  "  is  used  in  Yorkshire  and  some  other  counties  for  a 
sheep  a  year  old. 


196  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

*'  The  Dog  and  his  Shadow."  —There  is  a  con- 
fusion of  words  veiled  under  this  phrase.  It  is,  of 
course,  obvious  tliat  it  was  not  the  shadow  that  the 
greedy  animal  saw  in  the  brook,  but  the  reflec- 
tion of  himself  with  the  piece  of  meat  in  his 
mouth. 

Mistakes  in  Given  Names.  —  Fond  parents 
of  new-born  children  are  often  at  a  loss  for  a 
name  to  confer  on  them.  Sometimes  ludicrous 
mistakes  are  made.  A  father,  shortly  after  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century,  was  greatly 
interested  in  the  French  Revolution,  and  wishing 
to  commemorate  it  in  the  name  of  a  daughter 
called  her  Ca-ira,  but  not  knowing  French  pro- 
nounced it  Kayiry.  She  was  always  known  to  the 
younger  generation  as  Aunt  Kayiry.  It  is  a  mis- 
take to  give  a  girl  the  name  Evelyn,  which  is  the 
masculine  form  of  the  word ;  if  applied  to  a  girl  it 
should  be  Evelina,  or  Eveline,  or  Avelina. 

Cocaine  and  Alkaloids.  — A  writer  in  "Notes 
and  Queries  "  says  that  it  is  23articularly  exasperat- 
ing to  hear  cocaine  pronounced  as  two  syllables. 
He  says:  "It  cannot  be  too  emphatically  insisted 
that  this  word  should  be  pronounced  as  a  word  of 
three  syllables,  co-ca-ine,  signifying  as  it  does  the 
active  principle  of  the  narcotic  shrub  coca,  which 
by  the  way  has  nothing  to  do  with  cocoa." 

Another  writer  takes  exception  to  the  statement 
that  "  the  termination  ine  [in]  always  denotes  the 
alkaloid  or  active  principle  of  anything."    It  is  true 


MISQUOTATIONS.  197 

morphine  is  the  active  principle  of  opium  ;  nicotine, 
of  tobacco ;  quinine,  of  cinchona ;  stryclinine,  of 
nux  vomica;  caffeine,  of  coffee;  but  there  are 
iodine,  bromine,  glycerine,  chlorine,  crocine,  and 
carmine  which  do  not  denote  alkaloids,  nor  is  an 
alkaloid  necessarily  the  active  princi^^le  of  a  thing ; 
for  instance,  "  opium  yields,  beside  morphine,  papa- 
verine, thebaine,  codeine,  narcotine,  narceine,  and 
probably  several  more,  each  of  which  has  proper- 
ties of  its  own,  none  of  which  has  precisely  the 
same  value  as  any  other." 

Common  Mistakes  in  Fpeneh.  —  Some  of  the 
most  decorous  and  cleverest-looking  intruders  in  the 
realm  of  language  have  no  right  to  their  respecta- 
bility. Take  this  one  :  "  A  duel  a  roiitrance  "  (from 
the  ♦'  Touchstone  of  Life,"  April,  1897).  There  is 
not  such  an  expression  known  in  French,  yet 
English  writers  nearly  always  use  it  when  they 
really  mean  a  outrance  ('•  to  the  utmost" —  "  in  the 
strongest  terms  ") .  Expose  is  another.  Too  often 
this  is  written  as  French  for  *'  exposure,"  but  expo- 
sition is  the  right  term.  Next,  gasconnade  deserves 
two  "  n's,"  although  it  does  not  always  get  them. 
Then  there  is  the  fanciful  nom  deplume.  No  French- 
man ever  uses  it.  The  French  term  is  noyn  de  guerre, 
properly  applied  to  assumed  names,  such  as  Athos, 
Porihos,  and  Aramis,  which  French  gentlemen  often 
used  till  they  had  won  their  spurs,  or  as  long  as 
they  wished  to  remain  unknown.  Custom  may 
have  sanctioned  an  error  of  this  kind,  but  it  cannot 


198  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

make  an  error  justifiable.  And  we  have  yet  to 
learn,  in  spite  of  music-hall  programs,  that  a 
Frenchman  addresses  his  envelopes  with  either  of 
the  horrible  Anglo-French  constructions,  Mons.  or 
Mdlle.  Again,  gourmet  sometimes  takes  the  place 
intended  for  gourmand ;  the  meaning  is,  however, 
very  different,  as  gourmet  signifies,  in  French,  a 
judge  of  wine,  and  gourmand  a  glutton,  or,  more 
mildly,  a  gastronomist. 

A  most  egregious  blunder  is  to  write  coitte  qui 
coute  for  "cost  what  it  may,"  for  then  it  has  the 
ridiculous  meaning  of  "  cost  whom  it  may."  The 
proper  phrase  is  coute  que  coute.  A  weekly  paper 
says  :  "  This  sort  of  coute  qui  coute  policy  has  oper- 
ated before."  But  it  is  surprising  to  find  the  dis- 
tortion even  made  by  Pope  in  his  "Imitation  of 
Horace,"  Bk.  II.,  Sat.  VI. : 

"...  loved  his  friend,  and  had  a  soul, 
Knew  what  was  handsome,  and  would  do't. 
On  just  occasions,  coute  qui  coute." 

Double  entendre,  which  some  writers  seem  to 
think  is  French,  has  never  existed  in  France.  Per- 
haps doable  entente  is  intended,  *but  even  then  a 
word  cannot  be,  but  may  have,  a  double  entente,  as 
mot  a  double  entente.  It  is  a  mistake  to  tack  an 
"of"  on  the  French  expression  apropos.  It  is 
better  not  to  use  the  expression. 

Common  Mistakes  in  Latin.  —  "  Dulce  domum  " 
is  not,  as  so  often  supposed,  ' '  sweet  home ;  "  and 


MISQUOTATIONS.  199 

this  in  sjjite  of  the  fact  that  it  is  sometimes  seen  as 
the  name  of  suburban  viUas.  A  "sweet  home" 
would  be,  in  correct  Latin,  dulcis  domus ;  'Ululce 
do77ium,'''  on  the  other  hand,  means  "  (that)  sweet 
(word),  homeward,"  from  the  song  sung  at  Win- 
chester College  at  the  close  of  the  term.  In  utter 
defiance  of  grammar,  the  surplus  money  ofl:ered  for 
distribution  by  insurance  offices  is  usually  called 
'■'bonus''''  (a  good  maji)  instead  of  '*  bonum''''  (a 
good  thing) . 

In  the  English  Church  Catechism,  in  answer  to 
the  question,  "What  is  yovu'  name?"  the  answer 
should  not  be  "N.  or  M.,"  but  "  N.  or  NN.,"  i.e., 
Latin  nomen  aid  nomina,  name  or  names.  The 
printers    started   the   mistake. 

As  a  general  rule  it  is  a  mistake  to  use  foreign 
words  when  English  words  would  serve  as  well.  But 
if  foreign  words  must  be  used,  they  should  be  cor- 
rectly used. 

"Pitfalls  of  Pedantry."  —  It  is  a  mistake  to 
put: 

Aide-de-camps  for  aides-de-camp ; 
Chef-d'oeuvres  for  chefs-d'oeuvre ; 
Handsful  for  handfuls  ; 

Cherubims  for  cherubim  or  cherubs.  Cherubims  is 
given  in  2  Sam.  vi.,  2,  as  the  plural  of  cherub, 
and  in  conversation  the  same  error  frequently 
occurs.  Of  course  if  the  inflection  im  is  used 
the  s  is  not  required.  Compare  seraph — ser- 
aphim; Baal  —  Baalim  (the  images  of   Baal). 


200  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

On    the    other    hand,    Shakespeare,   in   "The 
Temj^est/^  makes  Prospero  say  to  Miranda, 

"  Oh,  a  cherubim 
Thou  wast  that  did  preserve  me." 

Animalculae  for  animalcula ; 
Omnibi  for  omnibuses ; 
Pliantasmagoria  for  phantasmagorias ; 
Apparata  for  apparatus ; 
Ignorami  for  ignoramuses ; 
Iliati  for  hiatuses ; 
Phenomenons  for-phenomena; 
Alussulmen  for  mussulmans. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  mistake  to  speak  of: 
A^  dicta  for  a  dictum  ; 
A  data  for  a  datum  ; 
An  ephemeras  for  an  ephemera ; 
A  genera  for  a  genus  ; 
A  jjhenomena  for  a  phenomenon ; 
Chinee  for  Chinese ; 
Portuguee  for  Portuguese. 

Mr.  Palmer  calls  such  blunders  the  pitfalls  of 
pedantry.  But  many  similar  blunders  have  been  so 
widely  adopted  that  they  have  become  recognized 
as  correct,  thus : 

Minnow  is  a  false  singular  for  minnows ; 
Grouse  for  grice;  because,  forsooth,  mouse  is  the 

singular  of  mice ; 
Pea  for  pease  (as  if  chee  for  cheese  !)  ; 


MISQUOTATIONS.  201  . 

Sherry  is  an  assumed  singular  of  sherris,  for  SjDan- 

ish  Xeres,  wine  of  Xeres  ; 
Cherry  is  an  assumed   singular  of  cherries,  which 

stands  for  French  cerise. 

Many  words  have  lost  or  gained  letters  by  reason 
of  the  propinquity  of  an  article  : 

Apron  should  properly  be  napron,  from  the  French 

naperon,  nappe,  cloth; 
Auger  should  be  nauger,  from  nav  and  gor,  a  wheels 

borer ; 
Adder  is  really  nadder ; 
Newt  is  an  eft ; 
Orange  should  be  norange,  from  Sanskrit  naranga, 

through  the  Persian  and  Arabic.     The  Sanskrit 

word  means  bright  and  is  applied  to  a  snake ; 

hence  the  legend  of  the  serpent  guarding  the 

golden  apples  in  the  garden  of  the  Hesperides ; 
Alligator  is  the  Spanish  el  lagarto  (Latin  lacertus), 

a  lizard ; 
Daffodil  should  be  affodil,  a  form  of  asphodel ;  tansy 

is  the  French  athanasie  ; 
Omelette  is  the  French  Talemette,  a  cake. 

Many  words  have  been  so  long  popularly  mis- 
spelled that  the  error  has  become  fastened  to  the 
language : 

Sound  should  be  soun  (as   if   we  said  gownd  for 

gown)  ; 
Sovereign  should  be  sovran,  and  foreign,  forein ; 


202  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Seapoy  should  be  Sepoy  (for  the  Oriental  Sipahi,  a 
soldier)  ; 

Sirloin  should  be  sur-loin  (the  part  above  the  loin)  ; 

Sirname  should  be  surname  ; 

Rhyme  has  no  right  to  the  "  h  ; '""  it  should  be  rime  ; 

There  should  be  no  *'  1  "  in  could ; 

Frontispiece  should  be  frontispice,  from  the  Latin 
Jrontisjnciimi,  the  front  seen  (of  a  building)  ; 

Guarantee  should  be  guaranty,  and  repartee  should 
be  reparty ; 

We  object  to  any  one  pronouncing  real,  reel ;  but 
ordeal  should  be  ordeel,  for  it  means  an  out- 
deal  ; 

Dragomen  for  Dragomans.  He  travelled  in  the 
East  with  two  Dragomen.  The  correct  plural 
forms  of  Dragoman,  Turcoman,  and  Ottoman 
end  in  s.  Yet  these  endings  are  not  analo- 
gous :  in  Dragoman  the  suffix  an  is  simply 
adjectival ;  in  Turcoman  (prof>erly  Turkman) 
the  ending  man  is  a  Persian  word  meaning 
like  or  thus,  Turkman  really  meaning  Turk- 
like ;  and  Ottoman  (properly  Uthman)  is  sim- 
ply a  proper  noun  wrongly  used  in  an  adjectival 
sense ; 

It  is  a  mistake  to  use  aborigine  as  the  singular 
number  of  aborigines.  Alms  is  really  a  singu- 
lar word,  though  now  used  in  the  plural ;  and 
news  is  properly  used  by  Shakespeare  with 
these  ("  Wherefore  should  these  good  news 
make  me  sick  ?  ""  "  2  Henry  IV.,"  IV.,  2),  though 


MISQUOTATIONS.  203 

now  we  use  it  as  if  it  were  a  singular  word 
made  up  of  the  points  of  the  compass,  N.,  E., 
W.,  S.  Assets  should  properly  be  singular; 
bellows  and  gallows,  plurals  ;  eaves  is  singular, 
and  its  proper  plural  is  eaveses,  though  custom 
has  dropjDed  it.  So  riches  is  the  French  richcsse, 
and  is  really  singular  ;  summons  is  the  French 
semonce,  a  citation. 


204  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

MISTAKEN   DERIVATIONS. 

Philomel.  —  This  word  for  the  nightingale,  so 
affected  by  early  English  poets,  is  not  derived  from 
the  Greek  words  meaning  melody-loving,  but  from 
phileo  and  melon,  fruit  lovers.  The  gale  in  night- 
ingale has  nothing  to  do  with  the  wind,  but  is 
allied  to  our  yell;  it  is  therefore  the  nightsinger. 

The  word  honeymoon  has  no  connection  with 
honey  other  than  in  the  fact  that  its  Icelandic  con- 
gener hjoii,  "  a  wedded  j^air,"  may  be  related  to  the 
Anglo-Saxon  hiwa,  a  hive,  or  hii\  a  house. 

Unruly  has  Nothing  to  do  with  Rules.  — The 
translators  of  the  Bible  and  many  other  writers  have 
naturally  connected  unruly  with  rule,  as  in  the 
phrase  "Warn  them  that  are  unruly"  when  the 
marginal  reading  is  "  disorderly."  But  unruly 
corresjDonds  to  the  German  unruhig,  restless,  and  is 
not  allied  to  rule. 

A  Brown  Study  under  a  Different  Color.— 
When  we  find  a  friend  in  a  brown  study  we  remark 
on  it  and  wonder  what  is  the  color  of  his  thoughts. 
They  may  be  blue,  but  not  brown.  It  may  be  a  per- 
version of  the  old  French  embronc,  which  means 
bound  down ,  sad,  pensive,  thoughtful ,  allied  toproiie. 


MISTAKEN    DERIVATIONS.  205 

Bucks  and  Bulls.  —The  animal  kingdom  is  not 
responsible  for  buckwlieat.  Buck  is  another  form 
of  beech,  and  it  is  really  beech-wheat,  so  called 
because  of  the  resemblance  of  the  kernels  to  beech- 
nuts. Neither  has  a  j^apal  bull  nor  an  Irish  bull  any 
connection  with  the  fierce  lord  of  the  field.  The 
one  is  from  the  Latin  bulla,  a  seal,  the  other  from 
the  Icelandic  bull,  nonsense.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
disreputable  verb  cabbage  is  not  really  a  slander  on 
the  vegetable.  It  comes  from  the  Dutch  Kabassen, 
to  steal,  to  bag,  to  put  in  one's  basket,  Kabas. 

Carnival.  — Byron,  in  "Beppo,"  says: 

"  This  fast  is  named  the  Carnival,  which  being' 
Interpreted  implies  *  fareAvell  to  flesh  ; ' 

So  called  because,  the  name  and  thing  agreeing. 
Through  Lent  they  live  on  fish  both  salt  and  fresh." 

But  Byron  was  wrong.  Carnival  is  not  from 
the  Latin  caro  and  vale,  but  from  Low  Latin  carne- 
levamen,  a  consolation  of  the  flesh. 

Helpmeet  or  Helpmate. —In  Genesis  ii.,  18, 
it  says :  "I  will  make  him  an  helpmeet  [that  is, 
lit]  for  him."  This  collation  of  noun  and  adjec- 
tive has  been  welded  into  a  common  noun.  But 
the  real  compound  should  be  help-mate. 

The  Peep  o'  Day  is  the  Pipe  o*  Day.  —  Chil- 
dren at  least  suppose  that  the  expression  peep  o' 
day  refers  to  day  peeping  or  j^eering  over  the  east- 
ern horizon.  Palsgrave  in  1530  gives  the  true  mean- 
ing, "  at  daye  pype,"  "  a  la  pii^e  du  jour ;''''  that  is, 


206  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

the  time  when  the  birds  begin  to  sing  —  '•  the  earli- 
est pipe  of  half-awakened  birds." 

Pennypoyal  worth  More  than  a  Penny.— 
An  old-fashioned  remedy  is  "  pennyrile  tea."  The 
word  is  a  corruption  of  the  translation  of  the  botan- 
ical name  pulegium  regium,  pulege,  pnliall  royal, 
hence  pennyroyal . 

Penthouse.  —  There  is  no  house  to  a  penthouse 
except  the  house  to  which  it  is  aj^pended.  The 
word  is  really  pentice,  from  the  Latin  2^e?idere,  to 
hang.  It  was  an  over-refinement  that  lengthened  it 
into  its  present  form. 

Philopena  op  Philippine. —  The  game  of  for- 
feit called  by  Americans  philopena,  as  it  is  a  penalty 
of  love  is  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the  German 
Vielliebchen  corrupted  into  Philippinchen,  a  sweet- 
heart or  valentine. 

Pickaxes.  —  There  is  no  axe  about  a  pickaxe. 
The  genuine  English  word  is  pickeys,  a  pick,  some- 
times spelt  pycoyse. 

Pile.  —  Wordsworth  begins  his  elegiac  stanzas 
suggested  by  a  picture  of  Peel  Castle  with  the  line, 

**  1  was  thy  neighbor  once,  thou  i-ugged  pile." 

He  probably  did  not  realize  that  he  was  making 
a  pun.  Pile  and  peel  are  the  same  word,  meaning 
castle.  The  word  pile  for  a  wooden  stake  comes 
from  the  Latin  j?9i7«,  a  pier  or  pillar ;  pile,  a  heap, 
from  the  Latin  plla,  a  ball. 

The  Milliner  and  the  Million.  —  The  word  mil- 


MISTAKEN    DERIVATIONS.  207 

liner  is  sometimes  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the 
Latin  mille,  a  thousand,  as  of  one  that  dealt  in  the 
thousand  and  one  articles  of  feminine  dress-orna- 
mentation. It  is  really  from  Milaner,  a  person  that 
sold  gloves,  laces,  and  other  finery  from  Milan. 
But  the  word  tureen  is  not  derived  from  Turin  ;  it  is 
for  terrine,  made  of  earth  (terra).  Bartlett  says 
that  million  for  melon  is  an  old  corruption  of 
melon,  and  Colgrave  is  quoted  as  giving  counte- 
nance to  it.  Du  Bartas  in  1621  speaks  of  the  marine 
"vines,  roses,  nettles,  millions,  pinks,  gilliflowers, 
mushrooms." 

Vinegar's  Mother.  —  Probably  most  persons 
imagine  that  there  is  a  maternal  relationship  be- 
tween vinegar  and  its  mother.  The  word  is  really 
mudder,  which  is  found  in  all  Germanic  languages, 
with  the  natural  sense  of  mud,  thickening. 

Running  a-muek.  —  There  is  no  relationship 
between  Bunyan's  man  with  the  muck-rake  and 
Dryden's  man  who  "  runs  an  Indian  muck  at  all  he 
meets."  The  word  is  derived  from  the  Malasian 
amok,  signifying  a  peculiar  frenzy  which  sometimes 
impels  the  native  to  rush  into  a  crowd,  striking 
blindly  with  his  ki^is  or  crease.  McNair,  in  his 
"  Perak  and  the  Malays,"  says  :  "  The  first  warning 
of  such  an  event  is  given  by  the  cry  'Amok,  amok,"^ 
when  there  is  a  rush,  and  people  fly  right  and  left 
to  shelter."  And  in  "  Tavernier's  Voyages  "  (II.,  p. 
202)  it  says:  "Drawing  their  poisoned  daggers, 
they  cried  a  mocca'upon  the  English." 


208  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Welcome  is  not  Well  Come.  — Welcome  is  not 

an  English  translation  of  the  Italian  ben-venuto,  well 
and  come,  bat  is  a  corruption  of  Anglo-Saxon  wil- 
cuma,  from  ivil,  gladly,  and  cumian,  to  receive ; 
hence  an  acceptable  guest. 

Rabbits  and  Rarebits. —Archbishop  Trench 
asserts  that  in  the  dish  of  melted  cheese  the  word 
rabbit  is  a  corruption  of  rarebit.  Palmer  says  it  is 
really  rabbit,  "the  mock  heroes  of  the  eating- 
house,"  like  "Irish  apricots,"  for  j)otatoes;  "  Cape 
Cod  turkeys,"  for  codfish;  "  Digby  chickens,"  for 
herring;  "Albany  beef,"  for  sturgeon;  and  the 
like.  A  Frenchman  translated  it  as  un  lapiu  du 
pays  de  Galles! 

Whaling  for  Wailing.  —  Jamieson,  in  his 
Scotch  dictionary,  quotes  this  definition  of  whaling  : 
"  a  lashing  with  a  rope's  end,  from  the  name  of  a 
roj^e  called  a  whale-line,  used  in  fishing  for  whales." 
It  should  be  wale,  or  welt. 

Whiskey  and  Water.  — Whiskey,  which  used 
to  be  spelt  usquebaugh,  comes  from  the  Keltic  uisge, 
w^iich  means  water.  It  is  the  same  word  that  is 
found  in  many  English  names  of  localities,  the 
Wash,  Usk,  Ox-ford,  ^a:-mouth,  Ouse,  Isis,  like  the 
Indian  termination  eg,  og,  ock,  unk,  which  also 
means  water.  It  is  ingeniously  hidden  in  the  name 
of  Phoenix  Park,  Dublin,  which  was  really  Fionn- 
uisg,  clear  sjoring,  but  a  column  in  the  park  shows 
a  phoenix  rising  from  a  pyre. 

Acres  and  Wiseacres.  —  When  a  dull  lawyer 


MISTAKEN    DERIVATIONS.  209 

argued  that  none  should  be  admitted  to  the  bar 
except  those  that  had  some  hxnded  property,  Curran 
said  :  "  May  I  ask,  sir,  how  many  acres  make  a  wise- 
acre ?  "  But  the  word  is  another  form  of  the  Ger- 
man Weissager,  wise-sayer,  or  wizard.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  word  witch  in  witch-hazel  is  not 
connected  except  in  imagination  with  the  power  of 
the  tree  in  detecting  water.  It  is  the  wicken  or 
wick-tree ;  in  Anglo-Saxon  cwic-brain,  which 
means  living  tree. 

Woman  Woe  to  Man.  —  It  used  to  be  thought 
seriously  that  the  word  woman  meant  woe  to  men, 
*' Because  by  woman,"  says  Southey,  "was  woe 
brought  into  the  world."  Of  course  that  is  false 
etj^mology ;  nor  is  the  derivation  from  womb  and 
man  anymore  accurate.  It  is  from  ivif,  the  weaver, 
or  possibly  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  wifcm,  to  join  or 
weave  together,  the  conjunx,  the  joined-to-man. 

One  who  Muses  does  not  neeessapily  cul- 
tivate the  Muses.  —  This  word  does  not  come 
from  the  muses,  but  is  from  the  French  7nuser, 
which  is  a  term  of  the  chase  meaning  to  lift  the 
muzzle  into  the  air  and  stand  as  if  listening,  paus- 
ing, or  pondering. 

The  Old  Nick.  —  Some  persons  confuse  the 
name  Nicholas  with  the  poj^ular  name  of  the  Evil 
One.  Thus  Butler  in  "  Hudibras  "  says  that  Nic- 
colo  Machiavelli  "  gave  his  name  to  our  Old  Nick  ;  " 
and  in  one  of  Ramsay's  poems  it  appears  as  Auld 
Nicol.     But  the  term  is  a  relic  of  the  old  English 


210  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

nicor,  a  goblin,  allied  to  the  word  nixy.  Palmer 
says  that  Old  Harry  was  originally  used  in  refer- 
ence to  Henry's  destruction  of  the  monasteries.  It 
might  be  confused  with  the  verb  harry,  to  lay 
waste. 

Or  Ever.  —  In  the  authorized  version  of  Daniel 
it  says,  "  The  lions  had  the  mastery  of  them  and 
brake  all  their  bones  or  ever  they  came  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  den."  Here  the  translators  imagined 
that  ever,  of  which  e'er  is  a  contraction,  was  a  more 
dignified  form  than  ere  or  or  alone.  Or  ere  is 
tautological. 

Pagoda.  —  Bailey,  in  his  dictionary,  derives 
pagoda  from  Pagan's  god.  It  may  be  derived 
from  the  Persian  but-khod4,  Idol-God. 

Pea-Jaeket.  —  Captain  Marryat,  in  "Poor 
Jack,"  says  that  the  article  of  sea-apparel  called 
P-jaeket  got  its  name  as  an  abbreviation  of  pilot- 
jacket.  But  the  pea  part  is  evidently  from  the  old 
English  pi/,  a  cloak,  as  in  court-py.  The  Dutch 
word  i^'J  nieans  a  rough  coat. 

Marbles  not  made  of  Marble.  —  As  marbles 
are  never  made  of  marble,  the  origin  of  the  word 
by  which  bo^^s  call  the  little  round  balls  in  their 
game  must  probably  be  sought  elsewhere.  In 
Evans'  glossary  it  is  explained  as  a  term  manu- 
factured from  marl,  out  of  which  in  some  parts  of 
England  marbles  are  made.  Palmer  derives  the 
name  from  the  French  marelles. 

Nightmares.  —  Captain  Burton,  in  "Etruscan 


MISTAKEN    DERIVATIONS.  211 

Bologna,"  confounded  the  ending  mare  in  night- 
mare with  the  female  of  the  horse,  and  the  illus- 
trator Fuseli  depicted  the  incubus  as  visiting  a 
sleejDer  in  the  shape  of  a  snarling  mare.  With  the 
same  mistaken  notion  Shakespeare,  in  "  King 
Lear"  (III.,  4),  speaks  of  "  the  nightmare  and  her 
nine  foals."  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Charles  Lamb,  and 
many  other  writers  have  been  likewise  deceived. 
The  word  is  really  the  Anglo-Saxon  mara,  allied  to 
the  Sanskrit  mara,  a  devil  or  destroyer. 

Jepked  Meat.  —  What  most  persons  imagine  to 
be  the  significance  of  jerked  in  the  compound 
"jerked  beef"  it  would  be  hard  to  say.  The  word 
is  not  derived  from  the  verb  to  jerk,  but  from  the 
Peruvian  charki,  as  is  shown  by  the  following  cita- 
tion from  Prescott's  "  Conquest  of  Peru":  '*  Flesh 
cut  into  thin  slices  was  distributed  among  the 
people,  who  converted  it  into  charki,  the  dried  meat 
of  the  country." 

An  Apk  that  was  not  Noah's.  — It  is  a  mis- 
take to  suppose  that  the  word  ar^k,  often  used  in  the 
sense  of  citadel,  especially  in  regard  to  oriental  or 
Indian  towns,  is  derived  from  the  Latin  arx,  though 
it  may  have  the  same  root  as  seen  in  arceo,  to  keep 
off,  defend.  It  is  a  genuine  Persian  word,  properly 
spelt  arg. 

Belfpies  and  Bells.  —  A  belfry  is  not  necessarily 
a  tower  to  hold  a  bell.  We  are  misled  by  the  sound. 
It  is  the  English  form  of  the  French  beffroi,  and  was 
often  spelt  berfray  or  bewfray,  a  watch-tower. 


212  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

The  Bitter  End.  —  We  sometimes  speak  of 
carrying  a  feud  out  to  the  bitter  end,  and  suppose 
that  it  is  the  same  word  as  used  in  the  phrase  "  a 
bitter  disappointment."  It  was,  however,  origi- 
nally a  nautical  term.  The  bitterns  end  is  that 
part  of  the  cable  that,  being  coiled  around  the  bites 
or  bitts,  remains  on  board.  Admiral  Smyth  is 
quoted  as  saying,  in  "The  Sailor's  Word  Book  " : 
"When  a  chain  or  rope  is  paid  out  to  the  bitter 
end,  no  more  remains  to  be  let  go.'' 

Bonflres  not  Boneflres.  —  Dr.  Johnson,  in  his 
dictionary,  says  that  bonfire  is  a  fire  made  on  the 
receipt  of  good  news.  Other  earlier  lexicographers 
thought  it  was  so  called  because  it  was  made  of 
"clear  bones  and  no  woode"  (Fuller,  "  Mixt  Con- 
templation"). Shakespeare,  in  "Macbeth,"  speaks 
of  "  the  everlasting  bonfire,"  as  if  for  bale-fire,  a 
funeral  pyre. 

The  Help  Apparent.  —  The  word  apparent  in 
the  expression  "  heir  apparent"  is  derived  either 
from  paraunt,  for  paravaunt,  meaning  first,  or 
else  from  apparenU,  related. 

Various  Mistakes  in  Derivations.  — Apple-pie 
order  is  not  an  order  peculiar  to  the  region  of  per- 
petual pie.  It  is  from  cap  a  pie,  referring  to  the 
complete  equipment  of  a  soldier.  Neither  has  the 
word  attic  anything  to  do  with  Greece.  Palmer  says 
it  is  a  word  borrowed  from  the  Sanskrit  "  atiak,^'' 
the  top  room  in  an  Indian  house.  Veranda  also  may 
be  from  the  Sanskrit  direct  throiigh  the  Portuguese. 


MISTAKEN    DERIVATIONS.  213 

Carryall,  the  name  of  the  American  carriage,  is 
not  so  called  because  it  conveys  the  whole  family, 
but  it  is  a  corruption  of  the  French  cariole. 

The  plant  that  country  folk  call  cast-me-down  or 
stickadove  is  a  curious  metamorphosis  of  the  botan- 
ical name  cassidone,  which  is  derived  from  Sioechas 
Sidonia. 

Cat's  cradle  has  nothing  to  do  with  cats.  The 
word  is  a  jDcrversion  of  cratch  (French  creche),  a 
wicker-work  rack. 

Nor  is  catsup  in  any  sense  a  dish  to  set  before 
Tabby.  It  is  the  English  spelling  of  the  Indian 
word  kit  jap. 

The  Italian  word  cento,  as  in  a  cento  of  verses,  is 
not  derived  from  centum,  a  hundred,  but  from  the 
Greek  kentron,  a  patch-work. 

The  old-fashioned  stock  in  trade  of  the  novelists 
was  a  changeling,  but  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  it 
meant  originally  one  child  changed  for  another  in 
the  cradle ;  it  is  derived  from  old  EnHish  chano^ 
(kang) ,  an  idiot,  a  natural ;  such  children  were  pop- 
ularly supposed  to  be  brought  by  the  fairies  and 
substituted  for  the  bright  baby  born.  "  Such  men 
do  chaungelings  call  so  chaunged  by  Fairies'  theft," 
says  Spenser. 

A  cutlet  is  not  a  little  cut,  any  more  than  a  bullet 
is  a  little  bull.  It  is  derived  from  the  French  cote- 
lette,  and  means  a  rib  {cote)  of  any  kind  of  animal. 

More  Examples.  —  The  old  English  cloth  called 
ciprus,  Cyprus,  cipres,  or  "  cobweb  lawne,"  derives 


214  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

its  names  probably  with  the  French  crepe,  from  the 
Latin  crispiis,  curled  linen.  Connected  with  the 
idea  of  mom-ning,  it  naturally  took  the  form  of 
cypress  ;  as  where  Jeremy  Taylor  speaks  of  "  black 
cypress,  a  veil  of  penitential  sorrow." 

Many  poets  think  there  is  a  verb  to  darkle,  to 
rhyme  conveniently  with  sparkle.  But  the  word 
darkling  is  not  a  present  participle  ;  it  is  an  adverb 
meaning  "in  the  dark."  "  Out  went  the  candle  and 
we  were  left  darkling,"  says  Shakespeare  (  "  King 
Lear,"  L,  4). 

Davy  Jones'  Locker  is  supposed  to  have  a  biblical 
original,  Jones  standing  for  Jonah,  and  David,  a 
po23ular  nautical  name,  being  prefixed. 

Demijohn  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  John  which 
stands  as  the  typical  name  of  all  nations  (John  Bull, 
Jean  Crapaud,  Hans,  Ivan,  Johnnie  Reb,  etc.). 
Damajana  is  a  large  glass  bottle  ;  the  French  make  it 
dame-jeanne ;  the  Italians,  damigiana.  Of  course 
it  is  possible  that  the  Arabic  is  derived  from  the 
French ;  though  Littre's  dictionary  connects  the 
ending  with  Turkish  jouna,  a  glass  bottie. 

Charles's  Wain. — Tennyson  speaks  of  Charles's 
Wain  in  "  The  May  Queen."  Who  Wcis  the  Charles 
thus  apotheosized  and  put  into  the  sky  like  an  ancient 
hero?  Charlemagne?  Some  have  thought  so,  others 
have  attributed  the  honor  to  Charles  I.  or  II.  But 
it  is  really  the  churPs  wain  or  farmer's  wagon  ;  just 
as  the  Greeks  called  it  hdmaxa,  a  chariot.  Nei- 
ther is  Charlotte  Russe  named  after  a  hypothetical 


MISTAKEN    DERIVATIONS.  215 

Russian  woman,  tsaritsa  or  peasant ;  it  comes  from 
the  old  English  charlet,  which  is  in  turn  derived 
from  the  French  chair,  meat. 

Cliieken-heapted  Cowards.  —  Chicken-hearted 
does  injustice  to  the  domestic  fowl,  which  is  gener- 
ally a  doughty  fighter.  The  word  is  connected  with 
Swedish  kikna,  to  lose  heart ;  and  has  several  con- 
geners in  the  English  dialect.  Neither  has  coward 
(cowheart)  anything  to  do  with  the  domestic  cow, 
or  with  cowherd  as  Spenser  spells  it.  The  timid 
hare  is  couart  (equal  to  short-tail).  The  connection 
is  evident,  then,  with  the  word  tail. 

Milk  and  Wine.  —  Clouted  cream  is  a  corrup- 
tion of  clotted  cream.  The  Rev.  A.  S.  Palmer 
points  out  the  fact  that  clouted  means  nailed,  and 
that  the  Greek  words  for  to  fix  and  to  nail  were 
likewise  applied  to  curdled  milk.  Our  fathers 
in  the  old  intemperate  days  liked  mulled  wine. 
Mulled  is  not  really  from  a  verb,  but  from  mould, 
earth,  and  signifies  the  wine  used  at  the  molcle  ealu, 
or  funeral  feast. 

Discords  in  the  Heart.  — It  is  a  mistake  to 
think  that  when  you  hear  a  discord  the  word  cord 
is  necessarily  involved.  It  comes  from  dis,  apart, 
and  cors,  heart ;  hearts  at  variance  ;  so  with  accord- 
ance, concord. 

Asses  and  Dogs  and  Frogs. —  Some  persons 
imagine  that  a  painter's  easel  is  so  called  because 
it  makes  his  work  easier.  It  is  from  the  Latin  asel- 
lus,  a  little  ass,  and  is  therefore  of  the  same  breed 


216  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

as  our  clothes-horse.  In  the  same  way  pulley  is 
not  from  the  verb  to  pull,  but  from  pulain,  a  colt. 

In  the  word  grayhound  the  color  of  the  dog  does 
not  give  it  the  name.  It  is  really  the  Graian  or 
Grecian  dog,  as  Spaniel  is  the  Spanish  dog. 

The  term  curmudgeon  is  not  derived  from  any 
reference  to  "  puppy,  whelp,  or  hound,  or  cur  of  low 
degree."  It  is  for  cornmudgin  or  corn  dealer, 
corn-hoarder;  hence  parsimonious.  The  word  cor- 
morant is  allied  with  it,  as  corn-vorant ;  neither  is 
the  dog-fish  so  called  because  it  is  fond  of  dogs  ;  it 
is  really  the  dag  or  dagger  fish. 

When,  some  time  since,  two  railway  companies 
quarrelled  over  a  crossing,  and  the  employees  of 
the  one  pulled  up  the  newly  laid  rails  and  frogs 
of  the  other,  a  wit  called  the  contest  "  a  new 
batrachiomachia,  or  battle  of  the  frogs."  The  word 
frog  in  such  a  connection  or  as  applied  to  a  part  of 
a  horse's  hoof  is  a  corruption  o{  frush,  for  fursh,  a 
fork  {Ln,t\x\furca) .  But  a  frog  on  a  coat  is  a  frock 
ornament. 

Persons  who  live  in  "flats"  imagine  that  the 
name  is  given  to  their  apartments  because  the 
rooms  are  all  on  one  floor.  But  it  is  derived  from 
the  Anglo-Saxon  flett,  a  dwelling,  house,  or  cham- 
ber.    In  Scotch ^e^  is  a  floor  or  story  of  a  house. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  imagine  the  Freemasons  are 
any  more  free  than  those  that  do  not  belong  to  the 
order.  Scheie  de  Vere  derives  the  term  from 
Frere-Mason,  a  brother  mason. 


MISTAKEN    DERIVATIONS.  217 

Puzzles  fop  Fopeigneps.  —  A  stranger  in  the 
Boston  post-ojEiice  asked  a  man  whom  he  met, 
•*  Where  is  the  foragin  office  ?  "  He  made  a  mis- 
take in  pronunciation  (though  perhaps  not  far  from 
the  truth)  ;  but  the  g  in  foreign  is  a  mistake.  It  is 
an  interloper;  Chaucer  spelt  it  forayn.  It  comes 
from  the  Latin  foris,  out  of  doors.  It  should  be 
properly  spelt  foren  or  forein. 

Nothing  puzzles  2iforener  more  than  the  pronun- 
ciation of  our  English  words  ending  in  ough.  The 
Frenchman  who  said  he  had  a  cow  in  his  box  may 
have  studied  ^y right's  "  Fifteenth  Centuiy  Vocabula- 
ries," where  hie  hisses  is  translated  as  the  cowe.  Be- 
thought is  still  pronounced  bethoft  in  some  parts  of 
England,  and  daughter  as  dafter.  The  soldier's 
leave  of  absence  is  a  corruption  of  the  Dutch  ver-lof 
(German  Verlaub)  {lof,  hmb,  and  leave  being  identi- 
cal in  meaning),  and  was  originally  called  furlof. 

Gaits  and  Shoes.  —  Wheti  a  boy  wants  to  make 
sport  of  a  companion  he  often  sajs  he  "  has  a  gait 
like  a  pair  of  bars."  The  pun  really  recalls  the 
old  spelling,  which  is  correct.  Gait  has  no  near 
connection  with  "  go."  It  is  the  same  as  the 
Swedish  gata  or  gatan,  and  means  a  road  or  street. 
To  "  gang  your  ain  gait"  is  to  go  your  own  way. 
A  secondary  meaning  crept  in,  and  the  word  now 
means  a  mode  of  walking.  The  same  word  is 
compounded  with  lope,  to  run,  in  the  expression 
to  run  the  gantlope,  or  incorrectly  the  gauntlet; 
that  is,  to  run  through  a  lane  or  street  of  soldiers 


218  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

each  armed  with  whips.  Some  people  imagine  the 
word  galoshes  is  derived  from  gallo-shoes,  as  if  of 
French  origin.  It  is  supposed  by  most  etymolo- 
gists to  come  through  the  Latin  colopedia,  a  wooden 
shoe,  from  the  Greek  kalo-pedion —  a  *'  wood  foot" 
or  last.  Now  it  is  used  in  all  countries  for  rubber 
overshoes,  as  for  instance  galoshi,  in  Russia. 

Hessian  boots  are  not  boots  worn  by  Hessians, 
but  boots  and  gaiters  in  one,  from  the  old  word 
huseons,  which  is  joerhaps  the  same  as  the  English 
diminutive  hos-kins,  little  hose. 

Gambrel-poof s.  —  Dr.  Holmes,  in  a  quatrain, 
describes  the  oi'igin  of  the  word  gambrel-roof : 

*'  Gambrel,  gambrel,  let  me  beg 
You'll  look  at  a  horse's  hinder  leg ; 
First  great  angle  above  the  hoof, 
That  is  the  gambrel;  hence  gambrel  roof." 

Gambrel  is  a  cant  term  for  a  crooked  stick.  It  is 
derived  from  the  Welsh  and  Irish  cam;  Indo-Eu- 
ropean root  gam,  meaning  crooked.  Wlien  Scott 
speaks  of  the  deviPs  game  leg  he  means  a  crooked, 
a  disabled  leg;  when  a  Iamb  gambols  it  plays  with 
its  legs,  and  yet  the  word  has  no  connection  with 
game.  A  gammon  (or  wrongly  spelt  gambone)  of 
bacon  is  from  the  same  root,  as  is  also  ham. 

Modified  Oaths.  —  Many  persons  wishing  to 
express  their  feelings,  but  not  wishing  openl}"  to 
break  the  commandment,  use  modified  oaths  as  if 
thev  were  more  harmless.     Oh,  dear,  is  the  French 


MISTAKEN    DERIVATIONS.  219 

0  Dieu ;  Jiminy  is  either  the  Latin  Oemini  (Castor 
and  Pollux) ,  or  else  0  Jesu  Domine ;  la  or  law 
is  for  Lord ;  gosh  is  for  God ;  zounds  is  for  God's 
wounds  ;  Od'sbodkins  is  God's  body ;  Od'spitikins, 
God's  pity. 

Different  Kinds  of  Gin.  — Gin  is  sometimes 
called  Geneva,  as  if  it  were  a  distinctively  Swiss 
drink.  But  the  liquor  is  made  from  the  juniper, 
which  in  French  is  ginievre. 

Victor  Hugo  wrote  a  curious  poem  called  "  Les 
Djinns."  All  readers  of  the  Arabian  Nights  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  jjowerful  spirits  called  Jin  or 
Genies.  The  word  is  allied  with  the  Latin  Genius, 
but  comes  from  the  Persian  Jinni  (plural  Jin) . 

Instep.  —  It  is  a  curious,  but  natural,  mistake 
to  connect  that  part  of  the  foot  called  the  instep 
with  step.  Skeat's  dictionary  says  it  is  from  in  and 
stoop,  the  in-bend  of  the  foot. 

Isinglass. — The  thin  sheets  of  transparent  or 
translucent  mica,  and  the  gelatine  used  in  making 
jelly,  sometimes  misspelled  icing-glass,  get  their 
name  from  the  Dutch  huyzenblas,  wliich  means 
sturgeon  bladder.  The  spelling  icing  seems  to 
have  arisen  from  the  original  meaning  of  jelly 
(French  gclee),  something  frozen. 

Jaekalls  and  Jaekstones.  —  The  popularity  of 
the  name  John  and  its  variant  Jack  is  also  seen  in 
the  word  jackall  or  jack-call,  which  is  really  the 
Persian  shaghal,  the  howler,  and  m  jaekstones y  which 
should  be  chack  or  chuck-stones. 


220  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Jolly-boats.  —  Few  persons  when  they  read  in 
nautical  novels  of  the  captain  going  ashore  in  the 
jolly-boat  realize  that  it  is  only  another  name  for 
the  yawl,  the  yawly-boat. 

In  the  Soup.  —When  we  have  our  first  course 
of  soup  and  call  for  Julienne  we  little  think  of  the 
strange  origin  of  the  word.  It  used  to  be  m^ide 
with  sorrel,  the  name  of  which  in  Italy  is  alleluia, 
because  its  ternate  leaf  was  regarded  as  an  emblem 
of  the  trinity.  The  soup  was  introduced  into  France 
by  the  Italian  cooks  of  Catherine  de'  Medici,  under 
the  name  juliola.  Hence  Julienne  !  Neither  is  a 
jniree  soup  a  pure  soup.  It  comes  from  the  old 
English  and  French  pori^e.,  a  vegetable  pottage, 
from  the  Latin  porrum,  a  leek,  porraia,  leek  soups. 

Against  the  Grain.  —  When  one  speaks  of  some- 
thing going  "against  the  grain,"  the  picture  sug- 
gested is  of  a  knife  or  plane  running  in  opposition 
to  the  fibres  of  the  wood ;  it  is  a  popular  and  eftec- 
tive  metaphor;  but  in  old  times,  when  French  had 
a  greater  influence  on  the  language  than  it  has  now, 
we  find  it  expressed  "  against  the  gr'e  or  gree ; "  that 
is,  against  the  wish  or  desire. 

Grass  Widows.  —A  grass  widow  is  generally 
regarded  as  a  woman  whose  husband  has  gone  to 
grass.  Some  writers  try  to  find  an  explanation  in 
the  French  grace,  a  widow  by  courtesy.  As  it 
is  grass  in  the  Scandinavian  languages,  others 
have  conjectured  that  it  comes  from  the  word 
gradig    (our  greedy),    signifying   a   woman    who 


MISTAKEN    DERIVATIONS.  221 

longs  for  her  husband.  Here  one  may  have  a 
wide  choice. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  word  great  in 
the  expression  "they  are  great  friends"  is  almost 
slang,  like  "thick."  But  it  is  commonly  used  by 
early  writers,  often  alone.  Pepys,  in  his  "Diary," 
says  ;  "Lady  Castlemare  is  still  great  with  the 
king."  Bishop  Hall  says  :  "  Moses  was  great  with 
God."  It  has  been  derived  in  this  connection  from 
the  Irish  gradh,  dear  ;  from  the  Anglo-Saxon 
grUan,  to  know  familiarly,  our  greet. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  broad,  short, 
crooked  sword  commonly  used  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  called  hanger,  was  so  called  because  it  hung  by 
the  side.  The  name  is  a  corruption  of  the  Arabic 
and  Persian  khanjar,  a  sabre.  In  the  French  it  also 
appears  with  the  article  al  alfange.  Neither  has 
the  word  hangnail  anything  to  do  with  hang;  it 
is  in  Old  English  agnel,  and  may  derive  from  ange, 
pain. 

Husband  is  not  a  house  band,  but  simply  the 
house  master,  band  in  the  compound  being  the 
teller  or  owner. 

Sleepers  that  do  not  wake.  —  The  word  sleeper 
has  been  ingeniously  connected  in  relationship  with 
dormer,  as  in  dormer-window.  It  is  really  another 
form  of  the  Norwegian  sleip,  meaning  slippery, 
hence  a  smooth  piece  of  wood,  and  comparable 
with  slab  and  slipper. 

The  word  vent,  for  a  small  opening,  has  no  more 


222  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

to  do  with  the  Latin  ventus,  the  wind,  than  the  word 
door  has  to  do  with  window,  as  Webster  says.  It  is 
another  form  oi  fent,  a  cleft  or  chink  (just  as  vixen 
is  the  feminine  of  fox) . 

Pudding-  should  have  no  *'  g.'*— When  children 
leave  the  "  g"  off  from  pudding  they  really  make 
no  mistake.  It  was  added  by  a  refinement  of  aflec- 
ted  gentility,  just  as  some  persons  now  say  capiing 
for  captain,  chicking  for  chicken,  kitching  for 
kitchen,  woolling  for  woollen. 

A  Quappy,  but  not  of  Roek.  —  In  reading 
English  books  where  hunting  terms  are  introduced, 
many  persons  mistake  the  word  quarry,  used  for 
game.  It  comes  from  the  Latin  cor,  the  heart,  and 
originally  signified  the  part  of  the  intestines  given 
the  dogs  as  a  reward  for  good  work ;  the  corres- 
ponding French  term  is  corce. 

The  Reindeep.  — The  introduction  of  the  rein- 
deer into  the  Klondyke  has  caused  various  news- 
paper writers  to  speak  of  the  animal  as  if  it  derived 
its  name  from  the  word  rein,  because  it  is  harnessed. 
There  is  some  doubt  as  to  the  real  origin  of  the 
term,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  reins  as  "lines" 
must  be  ruled  out.  The  German  for  it  is  Rennthicr, 
'•  a  beast  that  runs."  Others  derive  it  from  the 
Lapp  reino,  a  posture,  hence  the  domesticated  deer. 
In  Icelandic  it  is  called  hreinn,  clean. 

Ridings  ape  Thipdings.  —  Palmer  says  that 
rook,  the  name  of  the  castle  in  the  game  of 
chess,  is   a  corruption   of  Italian   7^occo,  a  fort  or 


MISTAKEN    DERIVATIONS.  223 

castle,  which  in  turn  is  a  corruption  of  the  Per- 
sian rokh,  a  boat,  that  being  the  original  form  of 
the  piece.  But  in  Persian  the  term  is  rukh,  and 
means  cheek. 

Shrubs  that  do  not  Grow.  —  Shrub  in  the  ex- 
pression raspberry  shrub  is  the  same  term  as  sirop 
and  sherbet,  which  in  turn  are  derived  from  the 
Arabic  sharib,  to  drink. 

Steelyard.  —  One  of  the  oddest  of  popular  mis- 
understandings of  words  is  steelyard,  which  has 
neither  steel  nor  yard  in  its  makeup.  It  is  a  corrup- 
tion of  stelleere,  or  steller,  a  regulator  or  balance. 

Tailors  and  Hatters.  — The  common  slur  on 
tailors,  that  nine  tailors  make  a  man,  is  said  to  be 
derived  from  the  practice  of  tolling  the  bell  thrice 
three  times  for  the  death  of  a  man,  and  twice  three 
times  for  the  death  of  a  woman.  Hence  nine  tellers 
made  it  a  man.  In  the  same  way  the  idea  that 
hatters  have  a  traditionally  hot  temper  arises  from 
the  old  English  word  better  meaning  furious,  rag- 
ing; so  that  "as  mad  as  a  hatter"  is  easily  ex- 
plained. 

Names  of  People  and  Places.  — On  the  author- 
ity of  Monier  Williams,  the  name  of  that  great 
prophet  usually  called  "Mahomet"  ought  to  be 
s^Dclt  thus,  "Muhammad,"  this  being  the  passive 
participle  of  the  verb  hamada,  signifying  "to 
praise."  The  original  family  name,  as  given  by 
Lake,  was  Kothan.  "There  is  certainly  not  more 
than    one    with   a    more    interestins"    career  than 


224  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Mahomet,  or,  more  correctly,  Muhammad,"  says  the 
"Daily  Chronicle." 

"  Bede  "  is  the  common  way  of  spelling  the  name 
of  "  The  father  of  English  learning."  The  correct 
way  is  Bceda. 

Also  Swithhun  —  which  is  the  form  given  in 
om^  native  manuscripts  —  is  not  only  turned  into 
Swithun,  with  one  "  h,"  rendering  the  word 
meaninrfess,  but  is  even  chano^ed  into  Swithin. 
And  the  Christian  name  of  the  celebrated  archi- 
tect, Inigo  Jones,  would,  if  properly  spelt,  be 
En  ego. 

The  correct  pronunciation  of  Pepys,  as  given  by 
a  descendant  of  the  Diarist,  is  not,  as  usually 
heard,  "  Peps,"  but  Peeps,  as  Weems  for  Wemys. 
The  common  way  of  saying  "  dahlia,"  as  if  daylia, 
is  really  naming  a  totally  different  plant, — the 
"  dalea,"  —  a  greenhouse  perennial  named  after 
the  English  botanist,  Dr.  Samuel  Dale,  whereas  the 
"dahlia"  was  named  after  the  Swedish  botanist 
Dahl. 

Propep  names  Misapplied.  —  The  name  of 
Tom,  popularly  applied  to  bells,  is  derived  from 
the  boom  of  the  bell-tone,  as  in  tom-tom.  The 
terms  Cicely  ana  Alison  are  not  used  in  connection 
with  sweet  feminine  proper  names.  Sweet  Cicily 
is  the  Greek  Sesilis ;  Sweet  Alison  is  alyssum. 
Valentine's  day  is  not  a  saint's  day.  Valentine 
comes  from  galantine,  a  lover.  But  as  birds  pair 
about  the  time  of   Bishop  Valentine's  martyrdom, 


MISTAKEN    DERIVATIONS.  225 

February  14,  that  day  was  used  as  a  popular  time 
for  love  missives,  and  called  Valentine. 

Nor  is  Will  in  Will  o'  the  Wisj)  a  proper  name ; 
it  is  the  same  as  the  Icelandic  villa,  to  bewilder. 

Trifles.  —  Trivial  and  trifle  are  not  allied.  The 
meaning  of  trifle  would  seem  to  connect  it  with 
trivial ;  but  they  are  drawn  from  sources  far  apart. 
Trivial  is  from  a  Latin  word  meaning  cross-roads, 
and  hence  popular,  common,  and  finally  cheap. 
Trifle  is  a  jest  or  lying  story,  from  the  French 
iruffer,  to  mock. 


226  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAliE. 


CHAPTER  XY. 

MISTAKES  IN   SPEAKING   AND   WRITING. 

High-pitehed  Voices.  — It  is  a  common  mis- 
take, especially  in  New  England  and  among  women, 
to  speak  in  a  high  and  artificial  voice.  The  nasal 
quality  that  makes  our  American  voices  so  disagree- 
able may  with  care  be  overcome.  Speak  low  and 
distinctly. 

Hesitation  in  Speech.  —Language  is  a  tool.  It 
should  be  used  with  skill.  Notice  how  many 
speakers,  both  in  public  and  in  private,  hesitate  and 
stammer.  It  is  a  mistake  to  prefix  or  add  the  glid- 
ing syllables  er  or  a  to  a  word.  It  is  unnecessary  ; 
it  is  a  bad  habit ;  but  it  may  be  cured. 

Use  of  Slang.  —  It  is  a  mistake  to  use  slang  or 
to  i^epper  one's  speech  with  expletives.  All  extrav- 
agance in  language  weakens  the  efi'ect.  It  is  a 
mistake  to  qualify  every  verb  and  adjective  with 
"awfully."  Even  the  example  of  Plato  does  not 
make  it  advisable. 

Conceit.  —  Conceit  is  odious .  It  is  generally  a 
mistake  to  talk  about  one's  self.  More  interesting 
topics  may  be  easily  found. 

Mispronunciations.  —  Most  of  us  pronounce 
our  own  language  inaccurately.     In  the  majority  of 


MISTAKES    IN    SPEAKING    AND    WRITING.     227 


words  there  is  authority  for  several  pronunciations. 
Then  we  may  take  our  choice.     A  list  of  the  com- 
monest mistal^es  is  here  appended. 
Do  not  pronounce : 


Abdomen  for  abf/omen ; 

Acclimate  for  acc/miate ; 

Akeret  for  accurate ; 

Acrost  for  across ; 

Acumen  for  acz^men ; 

Admiralty  for  admiralty ; 

AdiiU  for  adult ; 

Adverse  for  arfyerse ; 

A^ain  for  a^e?^  ,• 

Aggrandize,  for  aggran- 
dize; 

Agil  for  do^il ; 

Agriculturalist  for  agri- 
culiMVisi ; 

Alabaster  for  alabaster ; 

^Zbumen  for  al6tmien ; 

Alms  for  aZias ; 

^^egro  for  al/egro ; 

Allepathy  for  alZopathy ; 

Al\y  for  ?dly  ; 

Almond  for  ahmond ; 

Alms  for  ahmz  ; 

Araature  for  amateur ; 

Ame?iable  for  amenable ; 

Amenity  for  amenity ; 

An''  for  and ; 


^4?zcient  for  ainshent ; 

Annilate  for  an^z^hilate ; 

Antipodes  for  an^2p6des ; 

Ai^ex  for  apex ; 

Apotheosis  for  apoZAeo- 
sis ; 

Apparent  for  appairent; 

Apricot  for  apricot ; 

^rab  for  ^rab ; 

^4re/^-etect  for  arketect ; 

Artie  for  Arctic ; 

Area  for  area ; 

Areola  for  areola; 

Ar^,a?^sas  for  ^rA:-an- 
saiv ; 

(Arquebus)  arkebuse  for 
ark-we-bus ; 

Sparrowgrass  for  aspar- 
agus ; 

Jspirant-for  as^M'ant; 

Atheneum  for  Athe72.eum ; 

Audashus  for  audacious ; 

Aureola  for  aureola ; 

Avenoo  for  avenue ; 

Avon  for  J.-von ; 

Aivji  for  awful; 


228 


THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


(Bacillus)      6asillus    for 

ba-a7-lus. 
(Bade)  bade  for  bad ; 
B-dnana  for  hiwiahna ; 
Ball  relief  for  bass   re- 
lief; 
(Been)  been  for  bin  ; 
Behemoth  for  behemoth  ; 
Be/ml  for  Belial ; 
(Bicycle)  h'lcycl   for   bi- 

cicl; 
Bitumen  for  biiwmen ; 
Blasp/iemious     for    blas- 

phe-mous ; 
Black-guard     for     bldg- 

gard ; 
Boatswain  for  b6s7i ; 
Bicnnet  for  bonnet ; 
Bowsprit  for  6osprit ; 
Brigaiid  for  brigsLud ; 
(Buoy)  boy  for  booee ; 
Callio2:»e  for  cal-k'-op-e ; 
(Calm)  cam  for  cahm  ; 
CameZ-Zeopard  for  cameZ- 

opard ; 
Camfire  for  camphor ; 
(Caoutchouc)   c  a  t  h  -  60- 

chuk  for  koochook ; 
CapiVlary  for  Capillary; 
Caribbean  forCaribZ^ean ; 


Carotid  for  ca-ro^id ; 

Catridge  for  cartridge ; 

Castellan  for  castellan ; 

Cas-tle  for  cas'l ; 

Caucasus  for  Caucasus ; 

(Chasten)  chasn  for 
chasn ; 

(Chicago)  Chica/igo  for 
Chicawgo ; 

Childern  for  children  ; 

ChiyaZrous  for  shzynl- 
rous ; 

(Cinchona)  sinc^ona  for 
sin&ona ; 

(Cocheneal)  Coac/ieneal 
for  coZc/teneal ; 

Cockatrise  for  cock-a- 
trice  (tris)  ; 

Cognomen  for  cogTwmen ; 

(Column)  colyum  for 
coZum  ; 

(Comely)  comb-ly  for 
cumly ; 

Comparable  for  compar- 
able ; 

Compro?7zise  for  com- 
promize ; 

Conch  for  konk ; 

(7o7idolence  for  condo- 
lence ; 


MISTAKES    IN    SPEAKING    AND    WRITING.    229 


Confiscate  for  con^scate ; 

Considable  for  consid- 
erable ; 

ConspivsiQj  for  consp^r- 
aoy 

Contravj  for  contrstvy ; 

Coral  for  coral ; 

Counsl  for  counsel ; 

Coverlid  for  coverlet ; 

Coward^ce  for  cowardis ; 

CramheTYj  for  cran- 
berry ; 

Crik  for  creek ; 

Crematory  for  crem-a- 
tory  ; 

Crinoline  for  crinolin ; 

Cw^inary  for  c?i-linary ; 

Cupalo  for  cupola ; 

(Curasao)  Kew-ra-soar 
for  K66-ra-s6 ; 

(Curtain)  curtn  for 
curtin  ; 

CycZopean  for  cyclopean ; 

Dandeline  for  dandelion ; 

Bcm-'ish  for  i)anish ; 

Daylia  for  dah-lia ; 

Deaf  (deef)  for  def ; 

Debenture  for  de-beiit- 
ure; 

Decade  for  ^Zccade ; 


i)ecadence      for      deca- 
dence ; 
Decorative     for     fZecora- 

tive ; 
Z)ecorous  for  decorous ; 
Decreped  for  decrepit ; 
De-fine-itive    for    defiiii- 

tive; 
Depo  for  station ; 
Derilic  for  derelict ; 
Desolate  for  desolate ; 
(Desuetude)    desooetood 

for  deswetude  ; 
Devastate  for  cZeyastate ; 
Doo  for  dew ; 
Directly  for  derectly ; 
Disjnit-dnt  for  cZisputant ; 
(Docile)  do-sil  or  do-sile 

for  c/os-sil ; 
Do/orous  for  dolorous ; 
Do-Yic  for  dor-ic. 
(Dromedary)  dromedsirj 

for  drumedsiry. 
Doo  for  due  or  deiu ;   or 

du  for  do. 
(Dubious)   doobious    for 

dewbious ; 
Dook  for  duke ; 
I)i7mstj  for  di/nnsty ; 
Effut  for  effort : 


230 


THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


Edible  for  eligible ; 
Elumforelm;    . 
^'Zecution  for  eZocntion ; 
^eneid  for  Aene'id ; 
(Engine)    enjine  for  en- 

(English)     English     for 

Inglish ; 
£'?isilage     for      en-sigh- 

lage; 
Enthoosiasm  for  enthusi- 
asm; 
(Epaulet)  epulet  for  e2^o- 

let; 
(Epistle)  e-pzs^Z  for  episl ; 
(Equitable)  equitsibl  for 

eA;vvitable ; 
Er-a-to  for  ^r-ato ; 
Jrysipilus  for  eresypilas ; 
Espionage  for  espionage ; 
European  for  Euro^^ean ; 
EunVZeice  forEu-r_?/c?-i-ce ; 
Evenin  for  evening ; 
Evry  for  every ; 
(Evil)  eve-il  for  evl ; 
(Excursion)     excurzhun 

for  exourshun ; 
Exemplarfor  egzemplar ; 
Ex^:>a^riate    for    exjmtvi- 

ate; 


ExpZ^■cable  for  explic- 
able ; 

'Exquizit  for  ea^quisite ; 

Extry  for  extra ; 

(Extraordinary)  extra- 
ordinary for  extrordi- 
nary  ; 

Fairenheet  for  Fahr-en- 
heit ; 

Fanatic  for  ta,-7iaiiG ; 

Fasset  for  faucet ; 

FavonYe  for  f avorit ; 

(February)  Febuary  for 
Febrooary ; 

Zi^ecund  for/ecund ; 

Fellah  for  fellow ; 

(Feminine)  feminine  for 
feminin  ; 

(Fertile)  fertile  iovfertil ; 

Fi-delity  for  fid-elity ; 

Figger  for  figure ; 

Filiim  for  film ; 

(Finale)  fin-aZe  for  fin- 
ah-le ; 

(Flaccid)  flassid  for  flak- 
sid; 

Forehead  for for-ed ; 

Forgit  for  forget ; 

For?7u'<:Zable  for  formid- 
able ; 


MISTAKES    IN    SPEAKING    AND    WRITING.     231 


Fortnit  for  fortnight ; 
Fragrnew^ary    for     fvag- 

mentary ; 
i^rw?^tispiece  for  frontis- 
piece ; 
FullcYwm.  for  fulcrum ; 
(Furniture)  furnichewer 

for  fur-u\t-y\\v ; 
Futile  iovfutil ; 
(Gasoline)    gasoleen  for 

gasoYm  ; 
(Gauntlet)   gawntlet  for 

galintlet ; 
Ge?zrully  or  gen-ally  for 

genevaWj ; 
(Genuine)    genuine    for 

genuin ; 
(Gerund)     jerund      for 

jerund ; 
Gist  ioY  jist ; 
Git  for  get ; 

Gladiolus  for  gladzolus ; 
God-iva  for  Go-c?i-va ; 
Golden  for  goldn ; 
GoncZola  for  ^o?^dola ; 
Gor-illa  for  go-rilla ; 
Oovemiunt   for    gov-ern- 

ment ; 
Gra-nery  for  gran-ery ; 
Grat-is  for  gra-tis ; 


Grev-i-ous  for  griev-ous ; 
(rnmace  for  gvimace  ; 
Grim-aulkin  for  gri-mal- 

kin ; 
Gardeen  for  guardian ; 
Hast-en  for  hasn; 
Helum  for  helm ; 
HercuZean  for  herculean ; 
Hibernate  for  /izbernate ; 
^u'oglyphic  for  hi-er-o- 

glyph-ic ; 
Ho-lo-caust    for      hol-o- 

caust ; 
J7or-i-zon  for  ho-n-zon ; 
Z?o-ro-scope     for    hor-o- 

scope ; 
Hos-pzY-able  for  hos-\}it- 

a-ble ; 
(Hough)  huf  for  hok  ; 
Hung    for     hanged    (of 

criminals)  ; 
Hymeneal  for  hymeneal ; 
Hl-poc-risy      for       hyp- 
ocrisy ; 
(lohxiQuxnon)  itch-neumon 

for  iknumon; 
/dea  for  irfea ; 
I-deel  for  i-de-al. 
Id-yl  for  ^-dyl ; 
/Zlustrate  for  iUe^^strate ; 


232 


THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


Im??2ejetly  for  im-??ie-di- 

ate-ly ; 
Impiously      for      imp-'i- 

ously ; 
Im-pZac-able  for   'nw-xila- 

cable ; 
Iiiauo;erate    for   inauo^-u- 

rate; 
In-com-j9ar-able    for    in- 

C07>iparable ; 
In-cor-2^o-ral   for  in-cor- 

j}0-re-al ; 
In-rfec-o-rous    for    in-de- 

co-rous ; 
In-dus-iYj  for  ^?^-dus-try; 
Inex-o-rable     for    m-ex- 

orable ; 
Inex7)^ic-able    for    m-cx- 

plic-a-ble ; 
In-hos2J^7able   for    inhos- 
pitable ; 
(Inmost)  in-must  for  m- 

most; 
7?iquiry  for  in-^^m'-ry ; 
Insex  for  insects ; 
InsicZu-ous     for    in-sid-i- 

ous; 
In-^e-gral  for  ^>^-te-gral ; 
Interesting  for   ^?^terest- 


In-ter-locMtor  for  inter- 
locutor ; 

In-test-ine  for  in-iest-in ; 

/ntrigue  for  intrigue ; 

(Invalide)  i?i-Ya,-leed  for 
in-va-lid ; 

(Inveigle)  in-ya-gl  for 
in-yee-gl ; 

Ini'e?^tor3'    for  i7i-yen-to- 

i-y; 

I-rasA-able  for  i-ras-ci- 
ble; 

(Iron)  i-ron  for  iurn  ; 

Ir-re^:)ar-able  for  \Yrep- 
arable; 

Irrevocable  for  \vrev-o- 
cable ; 

Eye-lalian  for  It-al-ian ; 

I-vry  for  ivory  ; 

(7e?2-u-ary  for  Jan-u-ary ; 

Jeojjardize  for  jeopard ; 

Jeruzalem  for  Jerusa- 
lem ; 

(Jewel)  jule  for  ju-el ; 

(Jowl)  jowl  iovjole ; 

Jug-ular  for  ju-gular ; 

Ketch  for  catch ; 

Ketchn  or  kitchn  for 
kitchen  ; 

Kiltie  for  kettle ; 


MISTAKES    TN    SPEAKING    AND    AVRITIXG.     233 


(Kiln)  kiln  for  kil; 
Labi  for  la-hol ; 
Labrer  for  laborer ; 
ia-conism      for       lac-o- 

nism; 
Lac^oo^a  for  Lad-o-o-a ; 
(Landau)  lander  or  Ian- 
do  for  Ian-daw ; 
Lajy-el  for  la-pe^  ,• 
Latent  for  ^a-tent ; 
Latn  for  Lat-in ; 
(Laundress)      laivndress 

for  lahndress ; 
(Leisure)  lezh-ur  for  lee- 

zhur ; 
Lenth  for  length ; 
Len-iant  for  le-niant ; 
Le-pa?i-to  for  lep-an-to ; 
ieper  for  lep-ev ; 
Leth-2iY-g\Q,     for    \e-ihar- 

gic; 
Ljev-er  for  /ever ; 
(Licorice)    lic-eY-ish    for 

/^c-or-is ; 
ia-loc  for  lilac ; 
Livelong  for  livelong ; 
(Loath)  loth  for  loth  ; 
Lyceum  for  ly-ce-um ; 
MsLnimillary  for  mamm'il- 

lary ; 


Ma-nor  for  manor ; 

(Mansuetude)  man-5t^-e- 
tood  forwaw-swe-tude ; 

Man-tu-a-maker  for  maji- 
tu-maker ; 

Ma-ry-gold  for  7nar- 
ygold ; 

Markit  for  market ; 

Masculine  for  mascuUn ; 

Mat-von  for  md-iron  ; 

Matron  age  for  mat- 
ron age  ; 

Mat-ron-ly   for   ma-tron- 

Mattrass  for  mattress ; 
(Measure)    ma-zhur   for 

mezh-iir ; 
(INIedicine)     medsn     for 

rnede&m  ; 
(Meerschaum)         mere- 

shatvm  iormairshowm ; 
Mellah  for  mellow ; 
(Menagery)       menajery 

for  me)iahzhevy ; 
Me7Zi?igitis   for    meningi- 
tis ; 
Me^aZlurgy     for     metal- 

urgj ; 
Microscope     for     mzcro- 

scope ; 


234 


THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


Microscopy  for  micros- 
copy ; 

Mersicle  for  mir-acle ; 

Misc/icvas  for  mis-chie- 
vous ; 

Mis-chuf  for  mis-chief ; 

Mois-ten  for  moisn. 

MoTxaco  for  Mon-a-co ; 

Mo-nolog  for  monologue ; 

(i\Iori)hine)  morpheenfor 
morfin  ; 

Morsl  for  morsel ; 

(Mountain)  mounting  or 
mountaine  for  mount- 
in; 

ilfwseum  for  mu-^e-uni ; 

(Myrmedon)  mur-me-don 
for  meer-me-don ; 

INIy-thology  for  myth- 
ology ; 

Necked  for  ?^d-ked ; 

Nap  for  nape ; 

Nasent  for  7tas-cent ; 

(National)  ?i(2-shun-al  for 
nash-un-3l ; 

(Nausea)  naw-see-a  for 
naw-she-a ; 

(Ne'er)  nere  for  nair  ; 

(Nicotine)  mc-o-tee?i  for 
mc-o-tin : 


(None)  none  for  nun  ; 

ObcZia-ate  for  o6-durate ; 

0-6e-sity  for  ob-es-ity ; 

Ob-sce-nity  for  obscen- 
ity, 

(Official)  o-fish-al  for  of- 
fishal ; 

Of t-en  for  ofn ; 

Old-en  for  oldn ; 

Om-brellar  for  umbrella ; 

Onerous  for  o?i-er-ous ; 

Op-ponent  for  op-po- 
nent ; 

Or-inj  for  or-ange ; 

Or-de-sil  for  or-de-al ; 

(Orifice)  o-ri-fis  for  or-i- 
fis; 

(Original)  orig-o-nsd  for 
o-ny-i-nal ; 

Ovevt  for  o-vert ; 

(Oxide)  ox-eyed  for  ox- 
id ; 

Pa-mc-la  for  Pam-ela ; 

Pantomine  for  pan-to- 
mirae ; 

Pajy-yrus  for  pa-py-rus ; 

(Paraffine)  parafee7^  for 
^jara-fin ; 

Parsl  for  par-eel ; 

Pa-ri-ah  for  Par-iah : 


MISTAKES    IX    SPEAKING    AND    WRITING.     235 


Parislpl  forpar-ti-ci-ple ; 
Pa-ta-tali  for  po-ta-to ; 
Partridge  for  partridge ; 
Path-OS  for  pa-thos ; 
Fat-viot  for  /9«-triot ; 
(Pedagogue)  pedagog  for 

2Jecl-ii-gog ; 
(Pedagogy)     pet^agoggy 

for  ped-d-go-}y  ; 
Pec^estal  for  petZ-es-tal ; 
Fegasus  for  Peg-dsus  • 
Pensl  for  penoil ; 
Piny  for  pc-o-ny ; 
Per-ul  for  peril ; 
Persia  {Perzhid)  for  Per- 

shia ; 
Plia-ton  for  pha-e-ton ; 
(Pharmaceutic)  pharma- 

kutic  for   i3har-ma-52^- 

tic ; 
(Pharmacopoeia)      \)\v<iY- 

macopea   for    pharma- 

co-pe-a ; 
Phys-i-o?z-omy  for  phys- 

i-o^-no-my ; 
(Pianist)    pee-a-nist     for 

pee-a^-nist ; 
(Pigeon)  pij-in   for  pij- 

on; 
Pinchers  for  ^^"'i-cers ; 


(Piquant)  ])\kant  for  jnk- 
ant; 

Plac-a-ble  forp^a-ca-ble; 

Pla-^5^■-num  for  plai-i- 
num ; 

P^e-bee-an  for  ple-6e-ian  ; 

Ple^/iora  for  plet/i-o-va ; 

Poe^as^e-er  for  poet-as- 
ter; 

^o-lice  for  po-lice ; 

Polliwog  for  polliwig ; 

(Pompeii)  Pompey-eye 
for  Pompa-ye  ; 

Pot-able  for  po-table ; 

Potentate  for  po-tentate ; 

Pre-bend  for  pre6-end ; 

Pres-e-dence  for  pre-ce- 
dence ; 

Pre-cize-ly   for   pre-cise- 

PrecZ-i-lec-tion  forpre-di- 

lec-tion  ; 
Pre-/er-able   for  pref-QV- 

a-ble ; 
Pre-]  ate  for  pre^-ate  ; 
Prc?7i-at-toor  for  pre-ma- 

ture ; 
P?'c-sage  for  pre.s-age ; 
(Prescient)  presh-ent  for 

pre-she-ent ; 


236 


THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


(Presentation)  pre-zenta- 

tion  for  ^^re^J-entation  ; 
Pre-zent-iment    for   pre- 

sejit-imeut : 
(Presumptuous)      j9  r  e  - 

zum-shus  for  pre-zump- 

tu-ous ; 
Pretense  for  pretense ; 
Pretty  for  iwiiti} ; 
'Frevejit-ii-tiye    for    pre- 

ve?ii-\Ye ; 
Tnsti?ie  for  ^mtin  ; 
Priv-a-cy  for  pri-YSi-cy ; 
Pro-hi-ty  for  ^j>ro6-ity ; 
(Process)     pro-cess     for 

pros-ess ; 
Pro-dnce  for  prod-uce ; 
Pro-duct  for  prod-uct ; 
Pro-gress  for  j^ro^f-ress ; 
Pro-ject-ile  for  pro-ject-il ; 
Prom-ul-gate     for     pro- 

mul-gtite ; 
Pvo-sce7i-'i-um  for  pro-sce- 

niuni ; 
Pro- testation  for  prot-est- 

ation ; 
Pro-tho-?zo-ta-ry  for  pro- 

thon--d-lii-ry ; 
Pu-er-i7e  for  pu-er-il ; 
Punkin  for  jjump-kin ; 


Purport  forp?^rport ; 

Pyrimedal  for  pyram-i- 
dal ; 

(Pyrites)  py-rites  for  pi- 
ri-tes ; 

Py-ro-technic  for  pyr-o- 
tek-nic ; 

Py-tho-ness  for  pyth-o- 
ness; 

(Quay)  kay  or  quay  for 
kee ; 

Quog-mire  for  quag- 
mire ; 

(Quoit)  kwate  for  qwoit ; 

Eed-ish.  for  racZ-ish ; 

(Raj^ine)  rapeen  for  rap- 
in  ; 

(Raspberry)  ro2;-berry 
for  raz-berry ; 

Ruther  for  rather ; 

(Ration)  rash-un  for  ra- 
slion  ; 

(Rational)  rashonal  for 
r«s/i-on-al ; 

Pe-ly  for  re-ally ; 

Pebl  for  reb-el ; 

Pe-ciprocity  for  rec-i- 
procity ; 

Pec-on-ize  for  rec-og- 
nize: 


MISTAKES    IN    SPEAKING    AND    WRITING.     237 


Be-co\\ect  for  rec-ollect ; 

i?e-con-iioitre  for  rec-on- 
noitre  ; 

Re-knd  for  record ; 

i?e-creant  for  rec-reant ; 

Refluent  for  re/-lu-ent; 

Re-med-lahle  for  reme- 
diable ; 

Repar-able  for  rep-a-ra- 
ble; 

BeptWe  for  rep-til ; 

Rep?^table  for  rep-iitable ; 

i?es-piratory  for  respi-ra- 
tory ; 

Re-?;o-cable  for  rev-o- ca- 
ble; 

Runiatiz  for  rheu-ma- 
tism ; 

(Rhubarb)  rubub  for 
r/ioo-barb ; 

Re-bald  for  n6-ald ; 

Besk  for  risk ; 

i?obiist  for  robust ; 

iio-nio-la  for  Bom-o-la ; 

Ro-se-o-la  for  ro-;2e-ola ; 

(Rothschild)  Roth-child 
for  Rote-sheeld; 

(Route)  rowt  for  root ; 

*Sa-ccr-do-tal  for  sas-er- 
dotal ; 


>S^a-cra-ment    for   sac-ra- 

ment ; 
Sa-cri-fice  for  sac-rifice; 
Sa-cri-lij-us  for  sac-ri-le- 

gious ; 
Sa-gash-us     for      SB,-ga- 

cious ; 
(Said)  sade  for  sed  ; 
Sal-ic  for  Sa-lic ; 
Sa-leen  for  sa-line ; 
Sav-er  for  sal-ver ; 
Sanguine  for  sangwin ; 
Sarc^owyx  for  5«r-do-nyx ; 
>Sassaparilla  for    sar-sa- 

pa-ri71a ; 
Satisfised  for  satisfied ; 
5^aturnineforsat-ur-nine ; 
Sassy  for  sau-cy ; 
5eA;-a-tary  for  secretary; 
Sickl    pear     for     seck-el 

pear ; 
(Seneschal)       sen-es-cal 

for  seweshal ; 
Senil  for  se-nile; 
Short-livd  for  short-lived ; 
Sreek  for  shriek ; 
Srill  for  shrill ; 
Srink  for  shrink ; 
Srug  for  shrug ; 
Si-mo-ny  for  sim-ony ; 


238 


THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


Sence  for  since ; 

Siti-ecure  for  sj-ne-cure ; 

Slick  for  sleek ; 

(Sobriquet)  soobriket  or 
sou-bri-ka  for  5o-bri- 
ka ; 

Soft-en  for  sofn ; 

So-le-cism  for  sol-e-cism ; 

Sjyazum  for  spasm ; 

(Specialty)  spesh-i-aW- 
ty  for  sjjesh-ialtj ; 

Stomp  for  stamp ; 

Ste?it  for  stint ; 

Stolid  for  stol-id ; 

Strenth  for  strength ; 

(Suavity)  soo-av-ity  for 
svvav-ity ; 

Subjected  for  sub-^ec^ed ; 

Sech  for  such ; 

Sud'n  for  sudden ; 

(Suite)  soot  for  sweet ; 

Soopl  for  suj^iAe ; 

Spose  for  sup-po^e ; 

Sup-prise  for  sur-prise ; 

Sword  for  sord ; 

Tab-er-?zac-cle  for  iab-er- 
nacle  ; 

Tar-tarean  for  Tarta- 
rean ; 

Tossl  for  tassel ; 


Tatter-de-7?ia-lion      for 

tatterde?7z«Z-ion ; 
Tah-vern  for  tavern ; 
Tit  for  teat ; 
Tele^rop/ier     for    teleg- 

rapher ; 
Telegraphj  for    teZepfra- 

phy; 

Tenable  for  ^e?zable ; 

Tenet  for  ^e?zet ; 

Tepid  for  tepid ; 

(Terpsichore)  Terpsi- 
core  for  Terp-5ic-or-e  ; 

T/m-lia  for  Tha-Zi-a ; 

Thyme  for  tyme ; 

TickeWsh.  for  ticklish ; 

Tin-y  for  ti-ny ; 

ToZstoi  for  Tol-sZo-ee ; 

To-130-graphic  for  top- 
ographic ; 

Tor-toise  for  tortis; 

(Turgenief  or  Tourgue- 
nieff)  Tz^r-ge-nef  for 
Toor-^az?z-yef; 

Toward  for  toward 
(tord); 

Travl  for  travel ; 

Tremendyus  for  ivemen- 
dous  ; 

Tri-bune  for  irib-nne ; 


MISTAKES    IX    SPEAKING    AND    WRITING.     239 


(Troche)  trochy  for  tro- 

kee ; 
Toon  for  tune  ; 
Tyr-an-nic  for  ty-ran-nic ; 
Ty-van-uy  for  tyr-anny ; 
Unk-shus  for  iinc-tu-ous ; 
Unit'ocal  for  xxniv-o-cdil ; 
Un-pre-ce-dented  for  un- 

prec-edented ; 
Fa-ga-ry  for  Yagarj ; 
Valuble  for  val-u-a-ble ; 
Fariacose  for  varicose ; 
Var-i-loid  for  var-ioloid ; 
Vaws  for  vase ; 
Ve-Aemence    for    ve-he- 

mence ; 
Ve-/ie-ment     for     ve-he- 

ment ; 
Yelvit  for  velvet ; 
Fe^rinary    for    vet-er-in- 

ary; 
VideZ^cet  for  Yidelicet ; 
(Villain)  villun  f or  fzVin  ; 
YincZicatory  for  ?;m-dica- 

tory; 


I  (Violoncello)  violin-cello 

for  vee-o-lon-c/ieMo ; 
Virsigo  for  virago ; 
Vis-count  for  vi-count ; 
(Visor)  vi-zor  for  viz-or  ; 
Voc-a-ble  for  t'o-cable ; 
Vol-a-tile  for  I'oZatil ; 
Wagner  for  Vahg-ner; 
(Weapon)      we23'n      for 

wexPn ; 
Worf  for  wharf ; 
Wich  for  which ; 
Windah  for  window ; 
Wisky  for  whiskey ; 
Windicrd  for  windward; 
(Women)      wimun     for 

wim-en ; 
Wunt  for  won't ; 
Wuth  for  worth ; 
(Wrestle)  rassl  for  res'l ; 
(Yacht}  yat  for  yot ; 
Yit  for  yet ; 

Zo-di-ac-al  for  zo-<:Z^■-acal ; 
Zoo-oloo^ical  for z6-olooi- 

cal. 


240  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

TERMS   MISAPPLIED. 

Mrs.  Malaprop,  Mrs.  Partington,  and  the  Due  de 
Beaufort  are  conspicuous  examples  of  persons  using 
inappropriate  or  wrong  words  to  express  their 
ideas.  But  we  see  frequently  not  only  in  the  hasty 
work  of  newspaper  writers,  but  even  in  the  produc- 
tions of  famous  authors,  mistakes  that  should  have 
been  avoided.  Many  words,  judged  by  their  deriva- 
tion, are  used  incorrectly  in  common  speech,  but 
have  so  long  i^assed  current  that,  like  coins  re- 
stamped,  it  is  idle  to  object  to  their  use.  Examples 
of  some  of  the  more  popular  mistakes  in  the  use  of 
words  here  follow  : 
Ability  for  capacity.     Capacity  in  comprehension ; 

ability  in  execution. 
Above   for  more  than   or   beyond.      The    river    is 
above  fifty  yards  wide.     The  task  was  above  his 
strength. 
Administer  for  deal.  A  blow  administered. 
Aggravate  for  exasperate,  i^rovoke,  irritate.      His 

conduct  aggravated  me. 
Against  for  when.     Have  it  ready  against  I  come. 
Aggregate  for  amount  to.      The  collection  aggre- 
gated $500.     The  two   purses  given  the  min- 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  241 

ister  aggregated  $1,000.  Aggregate  is  a  transi- 
tive verb. 

Ain^t  for  isn't.     AinH  it  nice  ! 

All  not  for  not  all.  All  the  members  were  not 
present. 

Allow  for  think,  opine,  or  claim.  He  allows  he  has 
the  right  on  his  side. 

Alternation  for  succession.  An  alternation  of 
suitors. 

Alternative  for  course.  He  had  three  alternatives 
left. 

Amount  for  degree.  He  has  attained  a  remarkable 
amount  of  perfection  [degree  of  excellence]. 

Antagonize  for  oppose.  He  antagonized  the  Dean's 
views. 

Any  for  at  all.  I  am  not  reading  any  now.  She 
does  not  hear  any. 

Appreciate  for  value  or  esteem.  I  appreciate  him 
highly. 

Approach  for  address,  appeal  to.  The  party 
approached  the  Park  Commissioner. 

Apt  for  likel}^  or  liable.  He  is  apt  to  be  fishing. 
If  you  speak  you  will  be  apt  to  cause  trouble. 

As  for  that.     I  don't  know  as  I  shall. 

As  for  so  (after  a  negative) .  John  is  not  as  good 
as  William. 

Aside  for  apart.     Aside  from  this  consideration. 

As  though  for  as  if.  It  seems  as  though  he  were 
crazy.  [This  use  of  though  is  as  old  as  Chau- 
cer, who,  in  speaking  of  the  miller,  says  : 


242  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

"  His  herd  as  ony  sowe  or  fox  was  reed 
And  thertohrood  as  though  it  were  a  spade.^^ 

The  translators  of  the  Bible  made  use  of  it.  It 
is  to  be  found  in  nearly  every  writer  of  English, 
and  in  poetry  is  certainly  justifiable.  Yet  in 
ordinary  writing  as  if  is  preferable.] 

At  for  by.     The  house  was  sold  at  auction. 

Avocation  for  vocation.  His  avocation  prevents 
him  from  going  into  society.  [Etymologically 
the  distinction  between  these  two  words  justi- 
fies their  separation  ;  it  gives  a  useful  term  of 
contract  between  one's  duties  and  one's  diver- 
sions.] 

Badly  for  very  much.     I  shall  miss  you  badly. 

Balance  for  rest  or  remainder.  He  sold  the  balance 
of  the  edition. 

Be  done  with  for  have  done  with.  He  said  he  soon 
would  be  done  with  it. 

Beat  for  defeat.     We  beat  the  enemy. 

Before  for  rather  than.  He  chooses  death  before 
disgrace. 

Benedict  for  Benedick.  The  young  man  has  re- 
cently become  a  Benedict.  [Benedick,  as  a 
byword  for  a  newly  married  man,  comes  from 
Benedick,  the  young  gentleman  in  "  Much  Ado 
About  Xothing,"  who  ridicules  love  and  finally 
marries  Beatrice.  A  Benedict  is  either  one  of 
the  fourteen  popes  of  this  name,  or  else  a 
monk  of  the  order  of  the  Benedictines.  For  a 
bachelor  the  name    "Benedict"  is,    however, 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  243 

allowable,  as  it  is  probably  not  the  result  of  a 

confusion  with  the  name  of  Shakespeare's  hero, 

but  an  allusion  to  the  celibacy  of  the  Benedic- 
tine sect.] 
Between  for  among.     Betiveen  us  three.     [Between 

is  used  only  of  two  ;  among  of  more  than  two.] 
Better  for  more  than.     He  received  better  than  five 

dollars. 
Bi-weekly  for   semi-weekly.     A  bi-weekly  steamei 

sailing  every  other  Saturday.   [Bi-weekly  means 

twice  a  week.] 
Blame  it  on  for  charge  or  accuse.     He  blamed  it 

on  me. 
Bogus  for  worthless  or  fraudulent.     A  bogus  coin. 
Both  alike  for  alike.     They  both  look  alike. 
Bound  for  doomed,  destined,  or  determined.     It  is 

bound  to  fail.     I  am  bound  to  win. 
But  for  only  or  that.     The  others  but  gave  a  cent. 
But  for  only  or  that  or  than.     I  don't  ^doubt  but  he 

will  come.    No  other  excuse  but  this  was  given. 
Cablegram  for  cable  despatch.     A  cablegram  from 

London. 
Calculate  for  purpose,  intend.     I  calculate  to  go  to 

Europe  this  summer. 
Calligraphy  for  chirography.      His   calligraphy  is 

illegible. 
Can  for  may.     Can  I  have  some  more  strawberries  ? 
Capacious  for  large.     There  was  a  capacious  rent 

in  the  bottom  of  the  shij). 
Centrifugal  for  tangential.     [When  a  wet  mop  is 


244  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

spun  round  to  dry  it,  the  water  does  not  fly 
from  the  centre,  that  is,  centrifugally,  but  from 
the  edo-e,  and  at  rio^ht  anofles  to  a  line  drawn 
from  the  centre ;  that  is,  at  a  tangent,  or 
sideways.  You  can  simulate  this  fact  by 
whirling  a  stick  round  and  round  and  suddenly 
letting  it  go,  —  not  throwing  it,  —  when  it  will 
fly  away,  not  in  a  straight  line  from  the 
shoulder,  but  sideways.  The  waves  made  by 
dropping  a  stone  into  a  pond,  the  light  from 
the  sun,  and  sound  and  heat  are  examples  of 
centrifugal  force.] 

Claim  for  assert,  maintain.  He  claimed  that  he 
had  lost  his  pocketbook. 

Clever  for  good-natured.     He  is  a  clever  fellow. 

Condign  for  severe.  He  deserves  condign  [that  is, 
deserved]   punishment. 

Contemptible  for  contemptuous.  I  hold  a  contempt- 
ible opinion  of  him. 

Creditably  for  credibly.  He  \s  creditably  informed 
of  the  thing. 

Cyclone  for  tornado  or  hurricane.  A  terrible  cyclone 
struck  the  ship. 

Denude  for  exhausted.  The  lake  was  denuded  of 
its  fish. 

Deputize  for  depute.  He  was  deputized  to  go  to 
the  king. 

Description  for  kind.  He  had  no  furs  of  any 
description. 

Deteriorate   from   for  detract   from.     "  Does  it  in 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  245 

your  eyes  deteriorate  from  Milton's  peculiar 
greatness  that  he  could  not  have  given  us  the 
conception  of  Falstaif  ?"     (Dean  Farrar.) 

Develops  for  turns  out,  becomes  known.  It  devel- 
ops that  six  men  were  engaged  in  the  con- 
spiracy. 

Different  to  for  different  from.  It  is  different  to 
what  it  used  to  be. 

Directly  for  when  or  as  soon  as.  Directly  he  came 
in  he  began  his  work. 

Dirt  for  earth  or  loam.     They  built  a  dirt  road. 

Disposition  for  disposal.  What  disposition  shall  I 
make  of  the  MS.  ? 

Disremember  for  forget.  I  disremember  when  it 
took  place. 

Dock  for  wharf.     He  fell  off  the  dock. 

Don't  for  doesn't.     He  don't  do  it. 

Drank  for  drunk.     I  have  drank  the  medicine. 

Each  other  for  one  another  (of  more  than  two). 
The  three  women  kissed  each  other. 

Eleo^ant  for  beautiful.     This  is  an  elegant  morning. 

Endorse  for  approve.     I  e?ido?'se  this  sentiment. 

Enthuse  for  to  grow  or  make  enthusiastic.  Her 
rendition  of  the  song  enthused  him !  I  was 
real  enthused  ! 

Epithet  for  term  of  abuse  or  byword.  We  are  told, 
in  a  recent  text-book  on  physiography,  that  cer- 
tain islands  "  have  been  called  the  '  Brooches  of 
the  Sea,'  and  well  deserve  the  epithet  from  their 
attractiveness."     [Instead  of  epithet,  of  course, 


246  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

metaphor  should  have  been  used.]  All  ad- 
jectives, whether  opprobrious  or  comiDliment- 
ary  are  epithets ;  also  nouns  used  as  adjectives, 
or  having  the  descriptive  functions  of  adjectives, 
such  as  titles  of  honor,  are  epithets;  e.g..  Lord 
Wolseley,  Sir  John,  Cardinal  Newman,  Will- 
iam the  Conqueror,  Pater  jEneas,  Washington, 
the  father  of  his  country.  Such  terms  as  fool, 
liar,  brute,  are  not  epithets,  but  their  adjectives, 
foolish,  lying,  brutal,  are.  An  epithet  does  not 
necessarily  mean  anything  abusive ;  the  words 
beautiful,  homely,  truthful,  pious,  are  epithets. 

Equally  as  well  for  equally  well.  His  autograph 
would  do  equally  as  well. 

Every  for  all  possible.  We  have  taken  every  pains, 
and  extended  him  every  courtesy. 

Every  now  and  then  for  now  and  then.  He  comes 
to  see  us  every  now  and  then. 

Expect  for  suppose.  I  expect  you  were  sick  yester- 
day. 

Extend  for  show. 

Female  for  woman.  [This  use  of  female  was  com- 
mon in  fiction  a  few  years  ago,  but  better  taste 
discards  it.] 

Final  completion  for  completion.  On  its  final  com- 
pletion the  store  will  be  used  by  its  builders. 

Find  for  provide.  The  pupils  will  find  their  own 
books. 

Fix  for  arrange,  repair,  etc.  He  fixed  her  hair. 
The  clock  stopped,  but  I  fxed  it.     He  fixed  up 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  247 

and  went.  [Fix  has  been  called  "the  American 
word  of  words."  It  is  a  word  of  all  work. 
Good  taste  would  suggest  discrimination  and 
variety  in  the  choice  of  verbs.  Fix  means  to 
establish.] 

Fly  for  flee.  The  enemy  was  seen  to  fly.  [That 
would  be  correct  if  it  referred  to  Harpies.] 

Folks  for  folk.  My  folks  are  well.  [This  plural  of 
folk,  which  is  itself  plural,  has  become  so  com- 
mon as  to  be  almost  justified.] 

For  the  future  for  thereafter  or  afterwards.  They 
resided  in  the  city /or  the  future. 

Fraud  for  impostor.  The  court  proved  to  be  a 
fraud. 

Future  for  subsequent.  His  future  career  is  un- 
known. 

Gents  for  gentlemen.  Oents  wear  pants.  [When 
possible  it  is  better  to  say  men  than  gentlemen.] 

Goods  for  material.  She  had  a  dress  made  out  of 
excellent  goods. 

Gums  for  rubbers.  It  is  raining;  wear  your  gums. 
[Some  purists  object  also  to  the  use  of  the 
word  rubbers,  and  would  insist  on  using  the 
word  rubber-shoes  or  over-shoes.] 

Had  ought  for  ought.     He  had  ought  to  go. 

Hain't  for  have  not.     I  hain't  got  it. 

Handicapped  for  hampered  or  hindered.  He  was 
badly  handicapped  by  his  accident. 

Handy  for  near  by.  The  iDost-oflice  is  handy  to  the 
house. 


248  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Have  [has]  got  for  have  [has] .  He  has  got  a  bi- 
cycle. 

Healthy  for  wholesome.  Oranges  are  healthy  eat- 
ing. [We  may  speak  of  healthy  surroundings, 
wholesome  advice,  healthful  occupations.] 

Het  for  heated.     The  room  was  het  by  a  stove. 

However  for  how.     However  could  you  do  so  ? 

Home  for  at  home.     Is  your  mother  home  ? 

Hung  for  hanged;  of  persons.  The  defaulter 
hung  himself. 

Hurry  up  for  make  haste.  He  told  her  to  hurry 
up  and  come  down. 

Idea  for  opinion.  It  is  my  idea  that  it  will  rain 
to-morrow. 

If  for  whether.  I  doubt  if  the  letter  ever  reached 
him. 

In  for  into.  He  threw  the  boy  in  the  water.  He 
went  in  the  house. 

In  evidence  for  prominent,  or  conspicuous,  or  even 
present.  At  Mrs.  Jones'  Count  Gold-hunter 
was  in  evidence. 

In  respect  of  for  with  resj^ect  to.  We  have  con- 
sidered the  matter  in  respect  of  which  we  were 
talking. 

Inaugurate  for  begin  or  open.  The  exercises  were 
inaugurated  with  music  by  the  band. 

[Indices  is  not  the  proper  English  plural  of  index 
in  the  sense  of  a  table  of  contents.  The  Latin 
plural  indices  applies  to  mathematical  signs, 
and  to  the  medical  equivalent  to  critical  days. 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  249 

It  is  better  to  preseiTe  a  similar  distinction  also 
with  the  two  plurals  of  appendix.] 

Individual  for  person.  There  were  six  distin- 
guished individuals  present. 

Inside  of  for  wathin ;  of  time.  He  will  be  here 
inside  of  two  weeks. 

Kids  for  gloves  or  children.  She  told  the  kids  to 
put  on  their  kids  ! 

Kind  of  a  for  kind  of.  What  kind  of  a  speech  did 
he  make  ? 

Know  as  for  know  that.     I  don't  know  as  I  can. 

Last  for  latter  (of  two) .  There  are  two  houses  on 
that  side.     You  want  to  go  to  the  last  one. 

Latter  for  last  (of  more  than  two).  There  were 
six  books  in  a  row.     I  took  the  latter. 

Lay  for  lie.  There  let  him  lay.  [Lay  is  a  tran- 
sitive verb.  A  hen  lays  eggs.  A  mason  lays 
bricks.  The  preterit  is  laid:  The  hen  laid 
eggs.  I  laid  the  book  on  the  table.  Lie  is 
intransitive.  I  lie  on  the  ground.  The  preterit 
is  lay  :  I  lay  on  the  ground.  I  laid  my  cloak 
down  and  lay  on  it.] 

Learn  for  teach.     He  learned  me  to  draw. 

Leave  for  let  or  allow.    Leave  go  !   Leave  alone  of'ii ! 

Less  for  fewer.  There  were  not  less  than  ten  appli- 
cants. 

Liable  for  likely.     He  is  liable  to  break  his  leg. 

Like  for  as.  He  sjieaks  like  I  do.  [Like  requires 
an  object  only.  As  requires  a  verb  expressed 
or  understood.     It  is  as  yellow  as  gold  ] 


250     ^  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Like  for  as  if.     It  looks  like  it  would  snow. 

Lit  for  lighted.     The  gas  was  lit  at  six  o'clock. 

Loan  for  lend.     I  will  loan  you  a  book. 

Locate  for  settle.     He  located  near  Seattle. 

Lots  for  many  or  much.  We  have  lots  of  apples 
this  year,  and  lots  of  trouble  in  gathering  them. 

Lunch  for  luncheon.  Gents  who  wear  pants  eat 
lunch. 

Lurid  for  bright  or  red.  The  sky  was  lit  with  a 
lurid  glow.  When  he  came  in  he  gave  us  a 
lurid  description  of  the  fire.  [Lurid  means  jjale 
or  gloomy.] 

Majority  for  most.  The  majority  of  the  bonds  were 
sold  at  par. 

Materialize  for  appear.  We  expected  them  Sunday, 
but  they  did  not  unatcrialize. 

Mind  for  obey.   Boys  should  mind  their  parents. 

Monogram  for  monograph.  He  wrote  a  monogram, 
on  church  music. 

Most  for  almost  or  nearly.  I  see  him  most  every 
day. 

Mutual  for  common.  Mutual  enmities  cement 
friendships,  [This  use  of  mutual  for  common, 
called  by  Macaulay  a  vulgarism,  has  its  justi- 
fication in  a  genuine  need  in  the  language. 
Nevertheless,  as  in  the  example  given,  it  often 
introduces  a  wrong  concept,  and  should  be 
used  sparingly.  There  can  be  no  misconstruc- 
tion of  the  epithet  mutual  in  "  Our  Mutual 
Friend,"  for    instance :    it  sounds    better  than 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  251 

our  common  friend,  and  is  not  open  to  the  pos- 
sible secondary  meaning  of  common.] 

Name  for  mention.  I  never  named  the  affair  to 
him. 

Neither,  or,  for  neither,  nor.  Neither  John  or  I 
were  present.  [There  seems  to  be  a  conflict  of 
authority  regarding  the  use  of  the  alternatives . 
Thus  the  Standard  Dictionary  upholds  the  use  of 
nor  after  not.  But  it  seems  like  piling  up  double 
negatives  to  say.  Not  John  nor  William  nor 
Thomas.  The  not  governs  the  whole,  and  one 
should  say,  Not  John  or  William  or  Thomas. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  correct  to  say,  John 
did  not  sj^eak,  nor  did  I.  So,  also,  after  never. 
I  never  saw  Shakespeare  or  Milton,  is  correct, 
when  nor  would  be  wrong.] 

Nicely  for  ivell.     I  am  nicely  to-day. 

No  use  for  of  no  use.  It  is  no  use  complaining. 
[Better,   It  is  of  no  use  to  complain.] 

Nothing  like  as  for  not  nearly  so.  Cuba  is  nothing 
like  as  pleasant  as  Hawaii. 

On  for  by  or  in.  The  book  is  sold  on  subscription. 
I  came  on  the  cars.  [The  English  ])YQiev  inthe 
street  to  on  the  street.  But  owing  to  the  dis- 
tinction between  on  the  street  and  on  the  side- 
walk, the  American  locution  will  undoubtedly 
prevail.  It  is  certainly  logical  and  defensible. 
When  a  man  says  he  lives  "in  Fifth  Avenue" 
he  seems  to  imply  an  out-of-door  existence  not 
conveyed  by  the  term  "  on  Fifth  Avenue."] 


252  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Only  for  except.  The  electrics  will  not  stop  only 
at  the  white  posts.  [Only  is  the  sworn  enemy 
of  accuracy  and  elegance.  It  should  be  placed 
next  the  word  or  j^hrase  that  it  modifies.  Thus 
Mr.  Aldrich,  in  his  poem,  writes,  "I  only  died 
last  night."  But  surely,  it  may  be  argued, 
language  is  not  so  formal  and  ironclad  that  a 
poet  must  turn  his  poetry  into  prose  in  order 
to  be  precise.  Not  at  all !  And  all  that  one 
would  wish  is  that  a  writer  or  speaker  should 
not  sacrifice  sense  to  slipshod  haste.  If  the 
meaning  is  plain,  euphony  is  preferable  to  pre- 
ciseness,  as  in  the  sentence,  "  lie  only  lived  for 
their  sakes."  There  seems  to  be  a  similar  fa- 
tality about  misplacement  attaching  to  the 
words  also,  chiefly,  scarcely.  A  little  thought 
will  lead  one  to  an  instinctive  sense  of  the 
proper  place  for  these  adverbs.] 

Overflown  for  overflowed.  The  pond  has  overflown 
its  shores. 

Own  for  confess.     I  oiun  I  was  wrong. 

Pants  for  trousers  or  breeches.  There  is  less  ex- 
cuse for  this  vulgar  contraction  than  there  is 
for  gents,  which  has  indeed  good  old  English 
authority. 

Party  for  person.  Are  you  the  parly  I  met  last 
night  ? 

Patronage  for  custom.  John  Johnson,  successor  to 
John  Smith,  solicits  your  patronage. 

Per  for  a.     This  tea  is  sold  for  $1.00  j^er  j)ound. 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  253 

Three  dollars  per  volume.  [Per  should  be  used 
only  before  Lathi  words  :  jjer  annum,  per  cen- 
tum, etc.] 

Perpetually  for  continually.  Careless  writers  per- 
petually misuse  will  for  shall.  [There  is  a 
distinction  worth  preserving  in  the  use  of  the 
words  constant,  continual,  continuous,  per- 
petual, and  their  adverbs.  The  careless  writer 
that  uses  one  word  for  another  may  not  make 
the  mistake  frequently,  but  misuses  it  whenever 
the  chance  occurs  :  he  constantli/  misuses  will  for 
shall.  Sometimes  by  accident  the  careless  writer 
may  use  the  word  correctly :  he  continually  uses 
will  for  shall .  Perpetually  gives  an  exaggerated 
concept.  It  means  more  than  incessant.  The 
perpetual  flow  of  a  river:  the  incessant  may 
cease  ;    the  perpetual  continues  for  ever !  ] 

Perspicuity  for  perspicacity.  He  is  a  man  of  great 
perspicuity.  [Perspicuity  means  clearness. 
Perspicacity  means  clear-sighted,  keen.  Per- 
spicuity is  objective,  i^erspicacity  subjective.  A 
person  of  perspicacity  exj)resses  himself  with 
25erspicuity.] 

Pianiste  for  pianist.  The  pianiste  jjerformed  her 
solo  handsomely.  [Pianist  is  English  ;  pianiste 
is  French  ;  both  are  used  without  change  of  sex 
termination.] 

Plead  for  pleaded.  He  pl.ead  liis  cause.  lie  has 
plead  his  cause.  [Here  pleaded  should  be  used 
in  both  cases.] 


254  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Portion  for  part.  In  wh?it  portio7i  of  the  country  do 
you  re5^tZe?  [It  is,  however,  correct  to  ask  at  a 
hotel  to  be  served  a  single  portion.] 

Posted  for  informed.  He  is  well  posted  as  to  his 
duties. 

Predicate  for  predict.  It  is  impossible  to  jiredicate 
what  he  will  do.  On  the  other  hand,  predict  is 
sometimes  used  for  predicate. 

Presumptive  for  presumptuous.  He  was  exceed- 
ingly presumptive  in  his  demands. 

Preventative  for  preventive.  Quinine  is  a  prevenl- 
ative  for  chills  and  fever.  [The  rule,  in  the 
formation  of  adjectives  from  nouns  ending  in 
ation,  is  to  add  ative,  e.g.,  communication  — 
communicative  ;  representation  —  representa- 
tive ;  and  from  nouns  ending  in  ion  to  add  live, 
e.g. ,  deception  —  deceptive  ;  prevention  —  j)re- 
ventive.] 

Previous  for  previously.  Previous  to  his  coming  I 
saw  him. 

Privilege  for  right.  Ouv  jirivilege  is  universal  suf- 
frage. [A  privilege  is  a  special  or  peculiar 
right,  or  not  a  right  at  all.] 

Propose  for  purpose.  I  propose  to  go  to  the  theatre 
this  evening. 

Proven  for  proved.  It  was  2^f'oven  that  he  was  a 
forger. 

Quite  for  rather.  It  is  quite  a  warm  day.  [Quite 
means  fully,  completely.]  Is  the  gentleman 
quite  done  ?     [It  is  colloquial  to  use  it  Avith  the 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  255 

indefinite  article  to  mean  considerable,  or  with 
an  article  to  mean  a  little.  Nevertheless,  out 
of  colloquialisms  grows  racy  idiomatic  English. 
And  such  phrases  as  "He  cuts  quite  a  dash" 
atone  by  their  vigor  for  lack  of  elegance.] 

Raise  for  rear.  She  raised  three  children.  [Had 
this  term  been  applied  to  pigs  it  would  be 
correct.  It  is  also  incorrect  to  sj)eak  of  raising 
rent.] 

Rarely  for  very.  It  was  a  rarely  beautiful  even- 
ing. [It  is  a  moot  point  whether  to  use  rarely 
or  rare  in  such  a  sentence  as  :  It  is  rarely  that 
one  hears  of  such  an  accident.  Rarely  means 
infrequently,  and  although  it  is  better  to  say 
"One  rarely  hears,"  the  j^ai'iphrasis  may  be 
defended.] 

Rarely  ever  for  rarely  if  ever.  I  rarely  ever  see 
him. 

Real  for  very.  Ain't  she  real  cute?  [Those  who 
use  this  vulgarism  are  apt  to  pronounce  it  as  if 
it  were  spelt  reel.'] 

Rendition  for  rendering  or  performance.  Patti  gave 
a  superb  rendition  of  her  encore !  [Rendition 
is  properly  applied  to  the  yielding  up  of  a  for- 
tress or  the  trying  of  lard.] 

Replace  for  displace.  The  school  committee  re- 
placed the  algebra  by  geometry.  [Often  also 
replace  is  used  where  take  the  place  or  places 
of  would  be  better.  The  great  orators  have 
gone  :  who  will  replace  them  ?] 


256  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE, 

Retire  for  withdrawn  or  draw  out.  The  govern- 
ment has  bsgun  to  retire  the  paper  currency. 
[Some  persons  wishing  to  be  overnice  speak  of 
retiring  instead  of  going  to  bed.] 

Rugged  for  sturdy,  robust.     He  is  a  rugged  boy. 

Ruination  for  ruin.     It  will  be  the  ruination  of  him. 

Run  for  manage.     Who  runs  his  business  for  him  ? 

Sabbath  for  Sunday.     I  will  come  next  Sabbath. 

Seldom  ever  for  seldom  if  ever,  or  seldom  or  never. 
We  seldom  ever  meet.  Seldom  or  ever  is  mean- 
ingless. 

Set  for  sit.  Is  the  hen  setting'}  Take  a  seat  and  set 
down.  [One  sets  the  hen  ;  but  the  hen  sits  on 
the  eggs.] 

Settle  for  pay.     When  did  he  settle  his  bill  ? 

Simply  for  absolutely.  The  concert  was  simply  de- 
licious. 

Since  for  ago.  I  came  a  week  since.  Since  when  is 
tautological.  My  tire  was  punctured  ;  since  when 
I  have  not  ridden.     Since  when  did  he  fail  ? 

Smart  for  fashionable.  A  number  of  the  smart  set 
are  sailing  next  month. 

Some  for  somewhat.  It  rained  some.  I  think  some 
of  buying  a  seashore  residence. 

Some  place  for  somewhere.  I  have  lost  my  purse. 
I  must  have  left  it  some  place. 

State  for  say.  He  stated  that  he  was  forty-six. 
[State  means  to  set  out  the  particulars  in  detail.] 

Stop  for  stay.  At  wiiat  hotel  are  you  staj^j^ing  ? 
[To  stop  means  to  cease.] 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  257 

Subsequent  for  subsequently.  The  peace  was  made 
subsequent  to  their  defeat. 

Supposititious  for  imaginary,  hypothetical.  In  the 
stqjjjosiiilious  event  of  his  coming,  you  will 
cause  his  arrest.  [Supposititious  means  coun- 
terfeit ;  but  its  look  and  sound  connect  it  in  the 
common  mind  with  supposed] 

Sustain  for  receive.  lie  sustained  an  injury  to  his 
knee. 

'\  ha.i  for  when.  Scarcely  had  I  spoken  than  the 
door  opened. 

These  kind  for  this  kind.     These  kind  of  blows  kill. 

Those  kind  for  that  kind.  Those  kind  of  pears 
are  delicious.  [It  must  be  confessed  that  this 
colloquialism  is  ingrained  in  the  common  Eng- 
lish speech,  preserved  in  literature  as  it  is  in 
the  works  of  Bacon  and  many  others.] 

To  for  at.  I  was  to  church  this  morning. 
[Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  the  rule,  since  the 
verb  to  be  is  sometimes  used  idiomatically  for 
to  go,  the  expression  I  have  been  to  church, 
I  have  been  to  the  theatre  this  afternoon,  may 
possibly  be  defended.] 

Towards  for  toward.  The  shots  flew  towards  six 
soldiers.  [Anything  that  shall  reduce  the  sibi- 
lance  of  our  English  tongue  is  welcome.  The 
final  5  on  all  words  compounded  with  ivard 
is  superfluous.] 

Trans ferrence  for  transfer.  I  attended  to  the  trans- 
fer rence  of  the  bonds. 


258  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Transpire  for  occur,  take  place,  happen,  or  elapse. 
The  great  Boston  tire  transjnred  in  1872  ;  twenty 
years  hare  transinrcd  since  then.  [Transpire 
means  to  leak  out,  become  known.  It  tran- 
spired that  his  father  was  a  forger.] 

Try  for  make.  lie  will  ti^y  the  ex^Dcriment  this 
afternoon. 

Unbeknownst  for  unknown.  She  came  in  unbe- 
knownst to  me. 

Under  weigh  for  under  way.  We  got  under  lueigh 
at  sunrise.  [To  weigh  means  to  lift,  as  to 
weigh  anchor,  but  way,  nautically  speaking, 
indicates  motion  or  progress  through  the 
water.] 

Usage  for  use.  The  usage  of  the  split  infinitive 
seems  to  be  on  the  increase. 

Venal  for  venial.  He  was  guilty  of  a  venal  sin. 
[Yenal  means  ready  to  be  bought,  mercenary. 
Venial  corresponds  to  pardonable.] 

Vulgar  for  immodest,  obscene.  Do  not  listen  to 
vulgar  stories.  [Vulgar  properly  means  low, 
coarse,  and  ill-bred.] 

Ways  for  way.     He  came  a  long  ways  with  me. 

What  for  that.  I  do  not  doubt  but  what  I  shall  see 
him  there.  [In  the  locution,  He  brought  in 
nothing  but  what  he  paid  duty  on,  it  is  cor- 
rectly used.] 

Who  for  whom.  Who  did  you  see?  [It  may  l)e 
fairly  argued  that  this  is  a  condensed  form  for. 
Who  is  it  that  you  saw?      This  objective  use 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  259 

of  who  belongs  in  the  same  category  as,  It  is 
me,  It  is  him.  Nice  writers  will  not  fall  into 
this  colloquialism.  Yet  those  that  enjoy  idio- 
matic speech  will  not  hesitate  to  use  it  in 
common  conversation.] 

Whom  for  who.  We  saw  the  explorer  luhom  they 
said  was  the  bravest  man  living. 

Will  for  shall.  We  ivill  move,  on  the  first  of 
January,  to  our  new  store.  [Will  in  the  first 
person,  singular  and  plural,  denotes  a  promise, 
expresses  will.  Shall  denotes  future  action. 
Will  I  bring  my  violin  ?  asks  the  careless 
musician.  How  can  his  hostess  know  what  he 
will  do?  Shall  I  bring  my  violin?  would 
imjDly  that  permission  was  sought.] 

Without  for  unless.  He  will  not  go  on  the  stag-e 
ivUhout  his  father  consents. 

Worst  for  worse.     If  worst  comes  to  worst. 

Worst  kind  for  exceedingly.  I  want  to  see  her 
worst  kind ! 

Would  for  should.  We  would  not  shed  a  tear  if 
the  man  was  hanged.  [The  truth  is,  failure 
to  discriminate  in  the  proper  use  of  these  aux- 
iliaries deprives  our  language  of  its  inheritance 
of  niceness  and  accuracy.  But  it  is  often  difficult 
to  decide  on  the  j^rojDcr  word  to  use,  particularly 
when  the  sentence  is  complicated  by  indirect 
discourse.  The  New  York  "  Evening  Sun,"  in 
the  sentence  "They  feel  confident  that  out  of  the 
3,500  men  they  ivill  be  able  to  call  talent  that 


260  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

shall  send  the  department  ahead/'  manages  to 
misuse  both  auxiliaries.     The  Frenchman  said: 
"  I  will  drown ;  no  one  shall  help  me  ! ''] 
You  was  for  you  were.     Was  you  there  ? 

Mistakes  in  Comparison.  —  We  often  make 
mistakes  in  comparisons  of  adjectives  by  omitting 
the  exclusive  "other"  with  comparatives  and  in- 
serting it  with  superlatives. 

St.  Peter's  is  larger  than  any  church  in  the  world. 
That  would  imply  that  it  was  larger  than  itself  or 
that  it  was  not  a  church. 

The  London  "Times"  alleged  that  Mr.  Stanley 
w^as  the  only  one  of  his  predecessors  who  slaugh- 
tered the  natives  of  the  region  he  passed  through. 

They  were  the  most  audacious  of  all  the  other 
enemies. 

Where  two  objects  are  compared  it  is  a  mistake 
to  use  the  superlative  degree.  John  was  the  tallest 
of  my  two  sons.  In  the  same  way  the  poem  errs 
when  it  says  :  "  And  lo  !  Ben  Adhem's  name  led  all 
the  rest." 

Mistakes  in  Use  of  Pronouns.  —  Careless 
writers  fail  to  discriminate  in  the  use  and  position 
of  pronouns.  Much  confusion  often  arises  from  the 
lack  in  English  of  distinctive  pronouns  like  the 
French  celui-ci,  celui-la.  Thus  of  two  or  three 
men  :  He  told  him  that  if  he  did  not  pay  him 
within  a  week  he  would  cause  him  to  turn  over  to 
him  the  property  that  he  had  just  bought  of  him. 

The  possibilities  of  njisi^nderstanding  that   sen- 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  261 

tence  are  multiplied.  So  of  she  and  her.  It  requires 
great  skill  to  manage  these  grammatical  forms  so 
as  to  avoid  ambiguity. 

The  misuse  of  which  for  that  is  widesjjread. 
Few  of  our  most  j^opular  modern  writers  make  the 
distinction,  and  yet  the  proper  distinction  often  ren- 
ders a  sentence  free  from  trace  of  ambiguity. 

The  rule  is  simple :  That  should  introduce  a 
clause  restricting  and  completing  the  meaning  of 
the  antecedent. 

Which  and  who  should  introduce  a  new  fact  con- 
cerning the  antecedent.  I  took  the  only  boat  which 
I  could  see.  A  sentence  containing  a  relative 
clause  with  "  which  "  may  be  ambiguous.  A  sen- 
tence containing  a  relative  clause  with  "that" 
properly  used  cannot  be  ambiguous.  Sometimes 
the  distinction  is  so  unimportant  that  no  one  would 
care  to  make  it,  as  for  instance  :  The  sheep  that 
were  in  the  orchard  broke  loose.  The  sheep  which 
were  in  the  orchard  broke  loose.  In  the  lirst  in- 
stance the  sentence  implies  that  the  other  sheep  did 
not  break  loose,  that  there  were  other  sheep.  In 
the  second  there  is  no  implication  that  there  were 
other  sheep ;  the  sheep  broke  loose,  and  the  sheep 
that  broke  loose  were  in  the  pasture. 

"  You  will  open  the  conferences  which  will  be 
held  in  Paris."  Here  it  is  evident  that  the  question 
of  the  place  to  have  the  conferences  is  fully  de- 
cided. They  will  be  held  in  Paris.  Had  thai  been 
used,  the  order  would  be  plain  that  there  were  to 


262  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

be  other  conferences  elsewhere,  and  that  the  chan- 
cellor was  to  preside  over  the  ones  at  Paris.  Is 
not  the  distinction  evident  and  worth  utilizing  in 
other  cases  ? 

In  cases  where  ambiguity  might  be  serious,  it 
is  well  to  use  "  that"  for  "  who."'  As  for  instance  : 
The  officers  who  received  promotion  assembled  in 
the  hall.  This  implies  that  all  the  officers  received 
promotion  and  assembled  in  the  hall. 

The  officers  that  received  promotion  assembled 
in  the  hall.  That  implies  that  only  those  that  re- 
ceived promotion  assembled  in  the  hall. 

Sometimes  careless  or  ignorant  writers  misuse 
"that"  for  "  which." 

On  the  Seine  lies  the  city  of  Paris,  that  the  Ger- 
mans occupied  in  the  Franco-Prussian  War.  That 
signifies  that  another  city  of  Paris  was  not  occupied 
by  the  Germans. 

Professor  Compton,  in  his  "  Common  Errors  of 
Speech,"  falls  into  the  error  that  he  criticises ;  he 
says:  "  The  English  language  allows  a  degree  of 
freedom  in  the  use  of  the  passive  form  that  is  often 
conducive  to  rapidity  and  force,  but  tvhich  is,  in  the 
present  day,  much  abused.'' 

These  distinctions  promote  precision  of  language, 
and  should  be  carefully  taught  to  the  young. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  use  the  reflexive  pronouns  my- 
self ioV  I,"  yourself  iov  "  jou.,''' himself  tor  '*  him." 
John  and  myself  came  together. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  use  pronouns  without  antece- 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  263 

dents,  even  when  the  context  supplies  the  missing 
noun  :  "The  bazaars  are  interesting  centres  of  obser- 
vation. Here  the  potters  are  engaged  in  turning 
their  wooden  wheels.  In  Persia  they  use  them  as 
water-coolers."  Meaning,  of  course,  the  pots  made 
by  the  potters. 

Misplacement  of  Clauses.  — A  kindred  error  is 
to  separate,  by  a  subordinate  clause,  the  pronoun 
from  its  antecedent,  often  giving  rise  to  ludicrous 
misstatements. 

Ludicrous  mistakes  are  often  made  by  the  care- 
less introduction  of  subordinate  clauses.  "  Paid 
to  a  woman  whose  husband  was  drowned  by 
order     of     the     vestry    under    London     Bridge." 

"He  was  suddenly  seized  witli  an  attack  of 
paralysis  whilst  at  breakfast,  of  which  he  ulti- 
mately  died." 

"Erected  to  the  memory  of  John  Pliillips 
accidentally  shot  as  a  mark  of  affection  by  his 
brother." 

"  He  was  driving  away  from  the  church  where 
he  had  been  married  in  a  coach  and  four." 

A  Glasgow  paper  thus  described  a  shipping  ac- 
cident:  "The  captain  swam  asJiore,  as  did  also 
the  stewardess.  She  was  insured  for  £3,000,  and 
carried  two  hundred  tons  of  pig  iron." 

Morse's  geography  tells  of  a  certain  town  that 
contains  "four  hundred  houses  and  four  thousand 
inliabitants,  all  standing  with  their  gable  ends  to 
the  street." 


264  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

An  advertisement  in  the  "  Times"  announced  this 
peculiar  need : 

**  Two  sisters  want  washing." 

The  following  three  sacrificed  accuracy  to  econ- 
omy : 

"  Shetland  pony  suitable  for  a  child  with  a  long 
mane  and  tail." 

"Wanted,  a  piano  by  a  lady  with  modern  legs." 

"  Wanted,  a  nurse  for  an  infant  between  twenty- 
five  and  thirty." —  Telegraj^h. 

It  is  often  better  to  break  a  recalcitrant  sentence 
of  this  sort  into  two  or  even  more  independent  sen- 
tences. 

A  plural  noun  following  a  singular  will  some- 
times mislead  a  writer  into  using  a  plural  verb. 
This  is  called  the  "error  of  proximity."  "The 
statement  of  these  facts  were  disagreeable  to  him." 
"To  Marat,  and  Danton,  and  Robespierre  are  due 
the  honor."  This  is  one  of  the  commonest  and  most 
insidious  of  errors,  flundreds  of  examples  might 
be  and  have  been  culled  from  famous  authors. 

It  is  a  common  error  to  use  a  singular  verb  with 
the  relative  following  an  inclusive  superlative  : 

He  is  one  of  tha  tallest  men  ivho  has  ever  walked 
the  streets  of  the  metropolis. 

Careless  w^riters  and  speakers  often  clumsily  use 
the  perfect  infinitive  dependent  on  a  past  or  perfect 
verb :  I  was  sorry  not  to  have  seen  you  yesterday. 

I  would  have  liked  to  have  asked  him  his  name. 
Here  "  I  should  like  to  have  asked  "  or  "  I  should 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  265 

have  liked  to  ask  "  are  the  proper  forms,  there  being 
a  slight  difference  in  meaning  between  the  two. 

He  declared  that  he  should  have  been  proved  to 
have  spoken  those  words. 

Here  there  is  ambiguity  ;  because  he  might  refer 
to  the  one  that  declared  or  to  another  person  ;  should 
might  mean  ought  to  be  or  ought  to  have  been,  and 
to  have  spoken  might  or  might  not  stand  for  the 
original  thought.  Veril}^  indirect  discourse  in  Eng- 
lish is  beset  with  difficulties. 

Froude  is  cited  as  saying  :  "  He  might  have  been 
expected  to  have  gone."     To  go  would  be  better. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  use  the  participial  construc- 
tion and  neglect  the  necessary  apposition  :  Having 
spoken  the  customary  caution,  the  door  was  shut. 
Miss  Austen,  in  "Pride  and  Prejudice,"  wrote: 
"  Amazed  at  the  alteration  in  her  manner,  every  sen- 
tence that  he  uttered  increased  her  embarrassment." 

An  "  Old  Soldier"  justifies  the  title  of  his  book 
("  Rough  Notes")  by  this  sentence  :  "  Being  early 
killed,  I  sent  a  party  in  search  of  his  mangled  body." 

Carelessness  in  the  Use  of  Ppepositions. — 
Carelessness  in  the  use  of  prepositions  causes  a 
slovenly  style. 

Some  English  writers  nse  to  iov  from,  with  the 
adjective  different.     He  is  diflferent  to  his  father. 

Differ  with  has  a  different  meaning  from  differ 
from. 

Connect  to  is  sometimes  used  for  connect  with. 
A  rubber  tube  connecting  to  the  pumj). 


266  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

Compare  to  likewise  erroneously  takes  the  place 
of  compare  with. 

He  wore  a  hat  ornamented  by  gold  galoon. 

Sympathize  in  for  sympathize  with. 

Throw  in  for  throw  into. 

Some  grammarians  animadvert  on  the  use  of 
between  for  "  among"  where  more  than  two  objects 
are  mentioned.  In  most  cases  among  is  certainly 
2)referable.  But  where  the  imagination  supplies 
the  thought  of  pairs,  between  may  be  justified. 

A  close  union  sprang  up  between  these  four  men. 

Here  among  should  certainly  be  used.  A  con- 
stant intercourse  prevailed  between  the  soldiers  of 
the  two  opposing  armies.  Here  "between"  is 
defensible. 

Some  writers  use  between  with  every  or  each. 
Between  each  musician  hung  an  electric  light. 

Mrs.  Gaskell  wrote:  "Between  every  stitch  she 
could  look  up."  A  great  obstacle  interposed 
between  our  union.  Here  the  duality  of  union 
suggested  "between." 

It  is  a  mistake  to  repeat  the  conjunction  that  in  a 
sentence  where  a  subordinate  clause  intervenes 
between  the  verb  and  the  dependent  clause. 

I  told  him  that  if  he  broke  the  window  that  he 
would  have  to  pay  for  it. 

The  misplacing  of  adverbs  is  a  common  mistake. 
Not  onlg  should  be  placed  so  as  to  qualify  the  word 
it  affects,  and  should  be  followed  by  but  also.  Few 
writers  are  not  guilty  of  carelessly  neglecting  this 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  267 

simple  rule.  Thus  a  literary  journal  says:  Homer 
was  not  only  the  maker  of  a  nation,  but  of  a 
language  and  of  a  religion. 

Here  either  not  only  should  follow  maker,  or  the 
words  "  but  also  the  establisher." 

The  Split  Infinitive.  —  It  is  generally  a  mis- 
take to  employ  the  split  or  divided  infinitive ;  that 
is,  to  separate  to  from  its  verb. 

"To  in  certain  measure  approve.''  "I  hope  to 
quickly  come."  Occasionally  perfect  definiteness 
seems  to  require  this  collocation  of  the  adverb. 

"  It  is  said  that  China  hopes  to  easily  procure  in 
France  funds  to  enable  her  to  promptly  pay  the 
indemnity." 

Here  as  easily  might  apply  to  hopes,  and  as  it 
would  awkwardly  ioWow ijrociire,  "to  easily  pro- 
cure," though  clumsy,  might  be  pardoned ;  but  the 
second  instance  in  the  same  sentence  is  unpardon- 
able. 

"There  is  a  disposition  not  to  tamely  yield." 
Here  if  tamely  were  placed  after  not,  the  sentence 
would  be  worse  and  not  better.  It  should  read: 
"Not  to  yield  tamely." 

Common-sense  and  an  ear  quick  to  appreciate 
harmonious  combinations  should  guide  in  such  cases. 
But  the  hard  and  fast  rule  that  would  never  allow 
an  adverb  to  separate  to  and  its  verb  is  not  in 
accord  with  the  free  genius  of  English.  There 
are  so  many  examples  of  its  infringement  by  the 
best  and  most  idiomatic  writers  of  Ens^lish  that  no 


268  THE    MISTAKES    WE    MAKE. 

frenzied  protest  on  the  part  of  purists  will  avail. 
Yet  it  is  a  mistake  not  to  avoid  the  awkwardness  of 
the  split  infinitive  whenever  it  is  possible  to  do  so. 

Never  is  a  word  that  is  frequently  misplaced. 
Ruskin  in  one  sentence  says  to  this  effect:  "We 
never  remember  ever  to  have  seen." 

Omission  of  Artieles. — It  is  a  mistake  to  omit 
the  article  when  different  objects  are  mentioned 
under  the  same  regime.  He  sold  the  black  and 
white  puppies :  meaning  that  he  sold  the  black 
puppies  and  the  white  puppies,  and  not  the 
puppies  of  mixed  black  and  white. 

The  Democratic  and  Republican  parties  held  their 
convention.  This  would  imply  that  it  was  a  joint 
convention. 

It  is  a  mistake  not  to  employ  the  article  before 
the  titular  adjectives  Reverend  and  Honorable, 
which  are  not,  like  Doctor  and  Major,  titles.  The 
Reverend  Doctor  Hodgson ;  the  Honorable  John 
Jones  ;  the  Venerable  Archdeacon  Smith.  It  looks 
particularly  awkward  to  have  the  article  omitted 
when  the  abbreviations  are  used:  "Rev.  William 
Jackson  occupied  Rev.  Mr.  Hunt's  pulpit."  "  Hon. 
Henry  Archer  was  elected  to  Congress." 


By  constant  study  of  the  best  models  of  English 
style,  by  "eternal  vigilance"  in  avoiding  ambigu- 
ities, by  guarding  the  tongue  and  the  pen,  and, 
above  all,  the  mind,  from  fallino'  into  careless  habits 


TERMS    MISAPPLIED.  269 

one  may  learn  to  make  this  language  of  ours  a 
beautiful  instrument  for  the  expression  of  thought. 
One  who  can  write  with  well-balanced  and  graceful 
phrasing,  who  can  speak  easily,  fluently,  and  with- 
out hesitation  and  stumbling,  and  who,  above  all, 
has  something  worth  saying,  is  certain  to  win  the 
attention  of  the  world. 


INDEX. 


A  brown  study  under  a  different  color,  204. 

Acres  and  Wiseacres,  208. 

^sop's  fables  much  involved  in  legend,  96. 

Affra  capella,  translated  "  African  she-goats,"  174. 

African  she-goats,    amusing  translation  of   A^ra     capella, 

174. 
Against  the  grain,  220. 
Agrippina  not  put  to  death  by  Nero,  99. 
Ainsworth   narrates  exploits  of   Dick    Turpin.       See  Dick 

Turpin,  168. 
A  la  pipe  dujour.     See  Peep  o'  Day,  205. 
Alexander   compared   with  Thothmes,  90 ;  conquests  of,  91 ; 

did  not  weep  for  other  worlds  to  conquer,  91. 
Alfred,   King,  did  not  burn  the  cakes   or  enact  good   laws, 

119. 
**  A  little  more  than  kin  and  less  than  kind,"  meaning  and  dex'i- 

vation  of,  85. 
All  is  lost  save  honor,  192. 
Aloe,  the  gardener's  fable  concerning,  32. 
A  nation  of  shopkeepers,  originated  by  Adam  Smith,  195. 
Anaxarchus,  Alexander's  favorite  philosopher,  91,  note. 
"Ancient  Mariner,"  error  of  Coleridge  in,  171. 
Ancient  statues  were  colored  and  adorned,  59. 
A  new  brougham  sweeps  clean,  163. 
Anglo-Saxons,  the,  119. 
Anglo-Spanish  conflict.     See  Armada,  145. 


272  INDEX 

"  Anna  Karenina,"  German  translator  of,  misled  by  Slavonic 

epigraph,  174. 
Anniversaries,  mistaken,  IH. 
Antwerp,  heraldic  cognizance  of,  24. 
Apologies  do  not  imply  faults,   84;  used  in  the  old  Greek 

sense  of  defence,  84  ;  evidences  of  Christianity  technically 

called  apologetics,  85. 
Apostles'  Creed,  the,  not  of  apostolic  origin,  5. 
Appleton,  Thomas  G.,  witty  sayings  wrongly   attributed  to, 

187. 
A  quarry,  but  not  of  rock,  222. 
Arabia  Felix,  called  by  the  Arabs  Yemen,  23. 
Archimedes  and  his  circles,  92;  met  his  death  at  Syracuse, 

92  ;  stories  in  relation  to  him  not  probable,  93. 
Armada,  about  the,  145 ;  cause  of  its  defeat,  145  ;  why  it  was 

sent,  146. 
Arnold  von  "Winkelried,  the  story  of,  a  legend,  152. 
Articles,  omission  of,  268. 
Aryan,  the  term,  can  only  be  used  in  a  linguistic  sense,  113, 

note. 
Asses  and  dogs  and  frogs,  215,  216. 
A  star  that  is  not  a  star,  mistake  of  Coleridge  in  "Ancient 

Mariner,"  170,  171. 
"  As  merry  as  a  grig,"  55. 

Athanasian  Creed,  the,  not  the  production  of  Athanasius,  102. 
Augustine,  St.,  did  not  introduce  Christianity  into  England, 

110;  teaching  of,  in  relation  to  Wise  Men,  101. 
Aurochs  sometimes  incorrectly  applied  to  the  bison,  36. 
Australian  not  to  be  called  a  "  native,"  7. 
Auto  da/e,  the  first,  was  at  Valladolid,  104. 

Babylon  and  Babel,  etymology  of,  20. 
Bacon,  misquotation  of.     See  Shakespeare's  Slips,  164. 
Baeda,  statement  of,  in  relation  to  St.  Augustine  and  Ethel- 
bert,  110. 


INDEX  273 

Baffin's  Bay  is  not  a  bay,  21. 

Banyan,  the  persistent  error  regarding,  30. 

Barnfield,  Ricliard,  composed  part  of  "  The  Passionate  Pil- 
grim," 193. 

Bar  sinister,  the,  not  a  sign  of  bastardy,  84. 

Beaufort,  due  de.     See  Iron  Mask,  158. 

Beaver,  the,  habits  of,  50. 

Becket's  mother,  legend  of,  123 ;  his  father  a  Norman,  124. 

Beef  tea,  no  nourishment  in,  66. 

Bees,  blunders  about,  52. 

Belfries  and  Bells,  211. 

Belgrade  means  the  white  town,  24. 

Belial  was  the  father  of  no  sons,  102. 

Benche  on  the  story  of  the  Iron  Mask.  See  Story  of  the 
Iron  Mask,  158. 

Benzoni  the  first  to  tell  the  story  of  Columbus  and  the  egg. 
See  Columbus's  Egg,  154. 

Berdoe,  Dr.,  mentions  mistake  of  Browning.  See  A  Brown- 
ing Mistake,  168. 

Bering  Strait  should  not  be  spelled  Behring,  21. 

Bicycle,  the,  not  a  new  invention,  79. 

Birds  and  insects,  44. 

Birds  with  wrong  names,  44;  grouse  known  by  diiferent 
names,  44;  bobolink  becomes  reed-bird,  rice-bird,  and 
butter-bird,  44  ;  the  English  yellow  "  hammer  "  is  the  yel- 
low-bunting, but  should  be  yellow-ammer,  45  ;  the  hedge- 
sparrow  is  not  a  real  sparrow,  45  ;  the  so-called  muscovy 
duck  has  no  claim  on  Russia,  45 ;  the  night-jar  is  often 
called  the  *'  goat-sucker,"  45  ;  lose  their  way,  46  ;  do  they 
die  of  cold  ?  46 ;  how  they  sleep,  48 ;  the  eagle  does  not 
fly  downward  beak  first,  49 ;  the  scarlet  ibis  not  the 
sacred  ibis,  49;  the  owl  perches  with  only  two  toes  visible, 
49  ;  the  nightingale  sometimes  sings  throughout  the  day, 
49;  the  turkey  found  in  Mexico  by  the  Spaniards,  50; 
stories  of  the  ostrich  have  no  basis  in  fact,  50 ;  the  name 


274  INDEX 

of  the  flamingo  derived  from  its  color,  51 ;  only  five 
species  of  hawks  and  blackbirds  injurious  to  vegetation, 
51. 

Bison  not  a  buffalo,  36. 

Black  Prince,  the,  did  not  always  wear  black,  130. 

Blarney  Stone,  the,  in  Ireland,  22. 

"  Bleak  House  "  not  written  in  house  represented,  176. 

Bloodhound,  the,  not  naturally  cruel,  34. 

Bloody  Queen  Mary,  the  evils  perpetrated  in  her  reign  insti- 
gated by  others,  136.  137. 

**  Blude  is  thicker  than  water."  See  other  Proverbs  as- 
cribed, 193. 

Blunders  about  bees,  52. 

Blunders  made  by  famous  authors  and  others,  164. 

Bock  bier,  name  said  to  be  derived  from  town  of  Eimbeck, 
82. 

Bolmerino,  Lord.     See  Execution  of  Charles  I.,  140. 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  did  not  originate  the  phrase,  "A  nation 
of  shopkeepers,"  195. 

"  Bones"  of  contention,  8. 

Bonfires  not  bonefires,  212. 

Boroias,  the,  stories  of  their  crimes  an  invention,  156. 

'*  Born  in  the  purple  "  does  not  refer  to  the  Roman  or  Grecian 
Imperial  Court  d^-e,  84. 

Borrow,  George,  cynical  description  of  Byron's  funeral,  171. 

Boscobel  Oak.     See  Charles  II.,  141. 

Botanical  misnomers,  27. 

Braedalbane,  Earl  of,  instigates  massacre  at  Glencoe.  See 
Massaci'e  of  Glencoe,  143. 

Brain,  weight  of  the,  81. 

Breed's  Hill,  place  where  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was  fought,  1. 

Briar  pipes  made  from  the  bruyere,  28. 

British  Museum,  tradition  of,  in  relation  to  King's  Library, 
179. 

Britons,   the    ancient,    usually    called    Celts   or  Kelts,    113; 


INDEX  275 

not  driven  into  Wales,  nor  exterminated,  115,  116;  lived 
side  b}'  side  with  their  conquerors,  116;  blended  with  the 
lineage  of  the  Saxons,  l\o  et  seq. 

Brougham,  Lord,  did  not  invent  the  carriage  of  that  name, 
163. 

Browning  mistake,  a,  168. 

Bruce  and  the  spider  a  latter-day  fable,  124. 

Bruneleschi  and  the  o^^g.     See  Columbus's  Egg,  154. 

Bruno  was  not  burnt  alive,  110. 

Brugsch,  Dr.,  discovers  fable  of  Lion  and  Mouse  in  Egyptian 
papyrus,  97. 

Bryant  on  the  different  names  of  the  grouse,  43. 

Brydges,  Sir  Egerton,  ascribes  authorship  of  famous  epitaph 
to  William  Browne,  189. 

Bucks  and  bulls,  205. 

"Buffalo  "  Bill,  number  of  buffaloes  killed  by,  36. 

Bull-dog,  the,  not  so  ugly  as  he  is  ugly,  35. 

Bullets  that  act  like  explosives,  64. 

Bunker  Hill  Monument  not  erected  on  Bunker  Hill,  1, 

Butler,  in  "  Hudibras,"  credits  Nicolo  Machiavelli  with  giv- 
ing "  his  name  to  our  Old  Nick,"  209. 

Butt'on,  John,  declares  that  Judge  Jeffreys  presided  over  trial 
ofChaiiesI.     See  Execution  of  Charles  I.,  140. 

Byron,  blunder  of,  in  "  Marino  Faliero,"  171;  George  Bor- 
row's  cynical  description  of  funeral  of,  171. 

Cabot,  John,  the  undoubted  discoverer  of  the  American  conti- 
nent, 135. 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  did  not  discover  the  American  continent, 
134. 

Cade,  Jack,  was  a  gentleman,  133. 

Caesar  Augustus  not  a  public  benefactor,  97. 

Caesar,  Julius,  words  falsely  attributed  to,  98. 

Calvary,  from  the  Latin  calvarium,  a  skull,  21. 

Cambridge  not  the  bridge  on  the  Cam,  24. 


276  INDEX 

Cambronne  at  Waterloo,  189. 

Camel's-hair,  Moleskin,  and  Catgut,  11. 

Camel,  the,  called  "  Ship  of  the  Desert,"  37. 

Canaanites  not  exterminated  by  the  Israelites,  100. 

Canterbury  not  the  first  Christian  church  in  England,  112. 

•'  Cape  Cod  turkeys."     See  Rabbits  and  Rarebits,  208. 

Carlos,  Don,  died  a  natural  death,  156;  false  statements  of 
historians,  156,  157. 

Carlyle,  queer  English  of,  173. 

Carnival,  wrong  use  of,  by  Byron,  205. 

Cats'  eyes  ax'e  not  phosphorescent,  35. 

Caxton,  the  first  English  printer.     See  Printing  Press,  154. 

Celts,  or  Kelts,  the  ancient,  113. 

**  Chamois  "  leather  a  sham,  11. 

Champagne,  the  age  of,  157. 

Charles  L,  monopolies  granted  by,  86 ;  execution  of,  140 ;  did 
not  kneel  with  his  head  on  block,  140. 

Charles  II.  did  not  hide  in  a  tree,  141 ;  why  May  29  is  cele- 
brated, 141,  142. 

Charles's  wain,  214. 

Charlotte  d'Eon  de  Beaumont  was  a  man,  159. 

Chateau  not  necessarily  a  castle,  89. 

Chicken-hearted  cowards,  215. 

Christ  was  born  4  B.C.,  100. 

Cinderella's  glass  sUpper,  poetic  beauty  of,  87. 

Cinque  Ports  increased  to  thirty-nine,  22. 

City  of  London,  arms  of,  132. 

Clarence,  Duke  of,  was  not  drowned  in  wine,  135. 

Clarke,  E.  C,  finds  only  a  charred  fragment  of  Magna  Charta, 
127,  128. 

Claudian  speaks  of  the  Picts,  114. 

Cleopatra,  lies  about,  98 ;  Cleopatra's  Needle,  1 ;  did  not  dis- 
solve her  pearls  in  vinegar,  99. 

Cleopatra's  Needle  first  erected  by  Thothmes,  B.C.,  1600,  I ; 
taken  by  Cleopatra,  frona  its  original  position,  1,  2, 


INDEX  277 

Cocaine  and  alkaloids,  mispronunciation  of,  196. 

Coffee-"  berry  "  not  a  berry,  but  a  seed,  27. 

"Cold  roast  Boston"  (Nahant)  not  invented  by  Thomas  G. 
Appleton,  187. 

Cold  winters,  14. 

Coleridge,  error  of,  in  "  Ancient  Mariner,"  171. 

Colossus  of  Rhodes,  no  probability  of  such  a  statue,  97. 

Columbus's  egg  a  myth,  154;  Columbus  not  Columbus,  155. 

"  Come  'long.  Jack,"  street  in  Hong  Kong,  176. 

Comets  and  collisions,  65. 

Common  mistakes  of  many  kinds,  59. 

Common  mistakes  in  French,  197;  "A  duel  a  Voatrance" 
197;  '■''  Exposi^''  197;  "  Gascon nade"  197;  ^^  Nom  de 
plume,''^  197;  ''  Mons.,"  and  "  Mdlle.,"  198;  *'  Gourmet," 
198;  ^' Cofde  qui  co/lte,"  198;  ^*  Double  entendre,"  198; 
A  propos,"  198. 

Common  mistakes  in  Latin,  198;  '■^  Dulce  Domum,"  198; 
"  Bonus,"  199. 

Coneys  are  not  rabbits,  39. 

"  Conqueror's  "  title,  the  120  ;  he  did  not  lay  Northern  Eng- 
land waste,  121. 

Constance  de  Beverly,  fate  of,  as  depicted  by  Scott,  106. 

Coral  reefs,  depth  of,  80. 

Coriolanus,  mother  of,  95. 

Cork  legs,  no  trace  of  cork  in,  13. 

"  Cormorant"  derived  from  "  corn-vorant,"  216. 

Coronation  mugs,  161. 

Country  dances,  properly  a  "contra"  dance,  13. 

Creoles,  various  definitions  of,  88. 

Crime  of  youth,  the,  192. 

Cromwell  fond  of  out-door  games  and  sports,  139;  did  not 
attempt  to  sail  to  America,  140. 

Cromwell  had  no  illegitimate  children,  169. 

Cromwell,  Henry.     See  Story  of  the  Iron  Mask,  158. 

Curious  blunders  in  general  history,  149. 


278  INDEX 

Curmudgeon  not  derived  from  reference  to  puppy,  216. 
Cyclones,  tornadoes,  and  hurricanes,  confused  use  of,  88. 

Death,  is  it  painless  ?  62 ;  when  is  it  most  busy  ?  63. 

Deceptions  about  Dickens,  176. 

Deer  forests  are  without  trees,  28. 

De  Foe,  mistakes  of,  165,  166. 

Depth  of  coral  reefs,  80. 

Derivations,  mistakes  in:  ^^  cap  a  pie,''  '*  attic,"  **  carryall," 

" cast-me-down,"     "cat's    cradle,"    catsup,"    "cento," 

"changeling,"  "cutlets,"  "  Cyprus,"  "darkle,"  "Davy 

Jones's  locker,"  "demijohn,"  212,  213. 
Desert,  a,  that  is  fertile,  23. 
Desdouits,  Professor,  doubts  evidence  of  burning  of  Bruno, 

111. 
Dickens,    Charles,    invents    "  Mrs.    Harris "    and    "  Sairey 

Gamp,"  170 ;  deceptions  about,  176  ;  "  Old  Curiosity  Shop  " 

in  Portsmouth  street  not  immortalized  by,  176;  "Bleak 

House,"  mistakes  about,  176. 
Dick  Turpin,  mistakes  about,  168;   never  rode  to  York  on 

"  Black  Bess,"  168. 
Dick  Whittington  had  no  cat,  132. 
"  Dictes  or  Sayings   of   the   Philosophers."    See    Printing 

Press,  154. 
Dido  and  the  hide,  story  of,  96. 
Ditferent  kinds  of  gin,  219. 

"  Digby  chickens."    See  Rabbits  and  Rarebits,  208. 
Diogenes'  tub  a  myth,  96. 
Dirt,  mediaeval,  149. 
Discords  in  the  heart,  215. 
"  Dispute  of  the  Stomach  and  the  Members  "  identified  with 

an  ancient  Egyptian  original,  97. 
Dives  not  a  proper  name,  107  ;  and  Lazarus,  misapprehension 

in  relation  to,  107. 
Dog-days  and  rabies,  34. 


INDEX  279 

Dog- fish  not  so  called  from  its  fondness  for  dogs,  216. 

Don  Carlos,  136. 

Drayton,  Michael,  alludes  to  penance  of  Jane  Shore,  136. 

Dresden  china  made  at  Meissen,  10. 

"  Duke  of  Wellington,"  an  iron  steamship  nicknamed  "  Iron 

Duke,"  180. 
Dumas  creates  an  English  village,  172. 
Dutch  clocks  made  in  Germany,  11. 
Dutch,  the,  did  not  invent  thimbles,  79. 

Eagle,  the,  does  not  fly  downward,  49. 

Earth,  the,  as  a  conductor,  80. 

Easter,  the  first,  101. 

Edward  VI.  not  a  founder  of  schools,  137. 

Edwards,  Miss  Amelia  B.,  compares  Thothmes  with  Alexan- 
der, 90. 

Eglantine  does  not  **  twist."     See  Milton  in  Error,  169. 

Egyptian  cigarettes  and  tobacco,  28. 

Egyptian  sphinx,  Greek  legend  of,  3. 

Eleanor,  Queen,  and  the  fable  of  the  poison,  129. 

Electric  light  in  a  fog,  80. 

Elizabeth  of  Valois.     See  Don  Carlos,  136. 

England,  people  of,  not  descended  from  Celts,  113. 

English,  the,  not  an  Anglo-Saxon  people,  118. 

Epicures,  right  definition  of,  85. 

Epicurus,  the  apostle  of  temperance,  85. 

Epitaph,  well-known  ("  Sidney's  sister,  Pembroke's  mother  "), 
falsely  attributed  to  Ben  Jonson,  188;  found  in  manu- 
script collection  of  William  Browne's  poems,  189. 

Ermine,  the  symbol  of  justice,  39. 

Errors  of  translation,  173. 

Ethelred,  not  Unready,  120. 

Evans,  Oliver,  made  a  machine  for  dredging  purposes,  70. 

"Every  man  has  his  price,"  a  misquotation  of  Sir  Robert 
Walpole,  194. 


280  INDEX 

"Evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners,"   193.      See 

Other  Proverbs,  193. 
Execution  of  Charles  I.,  140. 

"  Fair    Rosamond "   was  not  poisoned    by   Queen  Eleanor, 

123  ;  was  not  the  mother  of  an  archbishop,  123. 
Famous    men,  sententious    sayings    wrongly    attributed    to 

Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Thomas 

G.  Appleton,  186.  187. 
Farrar,  opinion  of,  in  relation  to  birth  of  Christ,  100. 
"  First  catch  your  hare  "  not  found  in  "  The  Art  of  Cookery," 

170. 
First  Prince  of  Wales,  the,  129. 
First  transatlantic  steamer,  the,  69. 
Flag,  the,  that  rules  the  wave,  86. 
Flamingo,  the,  derives  its  name  from  its  color,  51. 
Flammarion  spreads  error  in  relation  to  Bruno,  1 10 
"Flat"  derived  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  ^^e^;^,  a  dwelling,  216. 
Fleur-de-Lis,  the,  brought  to  France  by  the  crusaders,  130. 
Flying-fish  and  squirrels,  43. 
Foolscap,  origin  of  terra,  86. 
"  Fortunes  of  Nigel,"  mistake  in.     See  The  Wrong  Bones, 

167. 
Fouche,  Joseph.     See  Talleyrand  and  Fouche,  187. 
Fountain  pens  and  typewriters,  79. 
Frauds  in  fur,  13,  29. 
Frauds  in  the  larder,  12. 
Freeman,  Professor,  on  alleged  cruelty  of  the  "Conqueror," 

121 ;  on  the  Mogul  Empire,  149. 
"Freemasons  "  not  m.ove  free  than  others,  216. 
French  archer,  the,  was  not  flayed  alive,  126. 
Friday,  is  it  an  unlucky  day,  7o ;  a  partial  list  of  fortunate 

Fridays,  75-78. 
"  Frog,"  in  use  on  railroads,  a  corruption  of  frush,  216. 
Fur,  frauds  in,  mink,  skunk,  muskrat,  coney,  39,  40. 


INDEX  281 

Fust,  or  Faust,  Johann.     See  Printing,  153. 
Fuji-yama,  mountain  in  Japan,  15. 

Gaits  and  shoes,  puns  on,  217. 

Galileo  did  not  say  "  E  pur  si  muove,"  190. 

Gambx-el  roofs,  description  of,  by  Dr.  Holmes,  218. 

Garter,  the,  on  another  footing,  128 ;  story  of  its  founding  a 
legend,  128. 

Gascoigne,  Sir  William,  did  not  send  "  madcap  "  son  of  Henry 
IV.  to  prison ;  was  not  reappointed  by  Henry  V.,  132. 

Gate  of  Janus,  the,  93. 

Gates  misunderstood.  Aldgate  should  be  Algate,  meaning 
free  to  all,  25 ;  Cripplegate  does  not  refer  to  a  gate  fre- 
quented by  beggars,  25 ;  Billingsgate  commemorates  the 
Anglo-Saxon  term  "  family  of  the  gods,"  25  ;  Grub  street 
not  named  because  of  its  eating-houses,  25. 

Gaul,  the  country  now  called  France,  20. 

Geoffrey,  archbishop  of  York,  the  only  non-rebellious  one  of 
Henry  II. 's  children,  123. 

George  the  Third  and  Bishop  Watson,  84. 

Gessler  and  William  Tell.     See  William  Tell,  150. 

Gill's  "  Student's  Geography,"  mistake  in,  180. 

Gladstonian  error,  168 

Glastonbury,  chui-ch  founded  in,  by  St.  Patrick,  112. 

Glasse,  Hannah,  there  never  was  a,  169 ;  the  "  Art  of  Cook- 
ery," 169,  170. 

"  Gleanings  of  Past  Years,"  error  of  Gladstone  in.  See  A 
Gladstonian  Error,  168. 

Glencoe,  massacre  at,  not  by  Englishmen,  143. 

"  Glove  for  a  shoe,"  mistake  in  English  version  of  Bible,  175. 

"  God  tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb,"  See  Quotations 
wrongly  ascribed,  194. 

Goethe's  "  Faust,"  Mephistopheles  the  fiendish  character  in, 
89. 

Goggle-eyed  saints,  mistaken  translation  of  Wiclif,  174. 

Good  yeeres  that  are  bad,  mistake  of  Shakespeare,  175. 


^^^  INDEX 

Gooseberries  not  for  geese,  33. 

Gothic  architecture  not  invented  by  the  Goths   10 

Gramercj  Park  derived  from  the  Dutch   De'  Kromme  Zee 

Grass  widows,  choice  as  to  its  derivation,  220. 
Gravestone,  an  untrustworthy  (Old  Parr),  178. 
Grayhound  not  derived  from  color  of  dog,'  216.* 
'Greatest  altitude  in  each  State  in  the  Union,  16-18 
'Great  friends,"  commonly  used  by  early  writers,  24. 
Gregorovius,  Ferdinand,  on  the  papacy,  103. 
Grolier  not  a  binder,  177, 

Guillotindid  not  invent  the  guillotine,  161;  was  not  its  first 

victim,  163, 
Guinea-pig,  the,  does  not  come  from  Guinea,  38, 
Guns,  the  horse-power  of,  81. 
Gutenberg,     See  Printing,  153, 
Gutta  percha  means  the  "  gum  of  Samaria,"  32. 

Haggard,  Ryder,  on  the  "  walling  up  "  of  nuns,  106. 
Halket^  Baron,  at  Waterloo,     See  Cambronne  at  Waterloo, 

"Hanger,"  corruption  of  the  Arabian  and  Persian  Khanjar, 
a  sabre,  221.  -^     ' 

Hannibal  fable,  the,  97. 

''Harmless  as  doves,"  mistranslation  in  New  Testament,  174 
Hastings,  battle  of,  120. 
Ham:as,  R,  H.,  odd  blunder   of,  regarding  Charles  Sumner, 

Hawks  and   blackbirds,   only  five   species    of,    injurious   to 

vegetation,  51, 
Hawthorn  not  a  thorn  that  bears  haws,  33. 
Heart,  the,  a  popular  mistake  about,  63. 
Helena,  mother  of  Constantine,  not  a  Briton,  107. 
Helpmeet  or  helpmate,  wrong  compound,  205. 
Henry  I.  did  not  die  of  gluttony,  122. 


INDEX  283 

Henry  11.  did  not  conceal  Fair  Rosamond,  123. 

Hessian  boots  are  not  boots  worn  by  Hessians,  218. 

Higginson,  Francis,  declares  the  Puritans  were  not  separat- 
ists, 138. 

Hingeston,  F.  C,  translates  Affra  capella  "  African  she- 
goats,"  174. 

"  History  of  the  Plague."     See  Defoe,  166- 

Hodgkins  speaks  favorably  of  Nero,  99. 

"  Hog  "  used  in  Yorkshire  for  a  sheep  a  year  old,  195,  note. 

Holiday,  no  national,  72;  legal,  in  the  various  States, 
72-75. 

Holland,  doubtful  derivation  of  name,  19. 

Hollyhocks  a  sort  of  hoax,  33. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  on  the  nautilus,  54. 

Homout  Ich  Dene  signed  by  the  Black  Prince,  127. 

Horatius  and  the  bridge,  story  of,  94. 

House-fly,  the,  formation  of  feet  of,  52. 

How  a  bull  charges,  37. 

How  deep-sea  fish  fall  up,  57. 

Hudson's  Bay  should  be  called  a  sea,  21. 

Hugo,  Victor,  mathematical  blunder  of,  172 ;  misspells  English 
proper  names,  172 ;  on  Cambronne's  words  at  Waterloo, 
189. 

Hurricane,  definition  of,  89. 

Huss  did  not  say  "  Sancta  simplicitas,"  or  pun  on  his  own 
name,  191. 

Ibis,  the  scarlet,  not  the  sacred  ibis,  49, 

Ice  in  Iceland,  14. 

In  the  soup,  220 ;  a.  puree  soup  not  a  pure  soup,  220. 

"  Irish  apricots."    See  Rabbits  and  Rarebits,  208. 

Irish,  origin  of  the,  96. 

Iron  Duke,  the  name  derived  from  an  iron  steamship,  180. 

Iron  mask,  story  of  the,  158. 

Irving,  Washington,  and  the  monks  of  Newstead,  155. 


284  INDEX 

Irving,  Washington,  quotes  story  of  Columbus  and  the  egg. 

See  Columbus's  Egg,  154. 
Israelites  did  not  exterminate  the  Canaanites,  100. 
"  Ivanhoe,"  mistake  in,  167. 

Jack  Straw's  Castle  on  Hampstead  Heath,  5. 

"  Jack,"  the  English  origin  of  the  name,  86,  87. 

Jane  Shore,  what  really  happened  to  her,  135,  136;  did  not 
give  her  name  to  Shoreditch,  136. 

Janus,  the  strange  Roman  god,  gate  of,  93  ;  a  temple  built  to 
him  by  Caius  Duilius,  93. 

Jeflferson.  more  Democratic  than  generally  supposed,  163. 

**  Je  me  rends,"  woi-ds  uttered  by  Cambronne  at  "Waterloo. 
See  Cambronne  at  Waterloo,  189. 

Jenkins,  Henry,  a  veteran  impostor,  178. 

Jerked  meat,  211. 

Job's  Stone  erected  by  Rameses,  2. 

John,  King,  did  not  sign  "  Magna  Charta,"  but  affixed  his 
seal,  127. 

Johnson,  Dr.     See  The  Crime  of  Youth,  192. 

John  the  Baptist's  food  was  locusts  and  wild  honey,  54. 

Jollyboat,  only  another  name  for  yawl-boat,  220. 

Juggernaut  not  a  fetish,  107 ;  old  missionary  stones  and  pict- 
ures exaggerated,  108. 

Jutland  foi'merly  belonged  to  the  Jutes,  19. 

"Kenil worth,"  mistake  in.     See  Scott's  Mistakes,  167. 

Kensington  Palace  not  in  Kensington,  3. 

Kilmarnock,  Lord.     See  Execution  of  Charles  I.,  140. 

King  of  beasts,  the,  a  coward,  35 . 

King's  Library,  the  misleading  inscription  on,  179. 

Korea,  native  name  Cho-sen. 

Kosciusko  and  the  end  of  Poland,  191. 

Lady-bird,  the,  not  a  bird,  but  a  beetle,  52. 

Lady  Jane  Grey.     See  Execution  of  Charles  I.,  140. 


INDEX  285 

*'  La  garde  meurt  et  \mais\  ne  se  rende  pas"  not  said  by 
Cambranne.     See  Cambronne  at  Waterloo,  189. 

Lambeth  Palace  in  the  diocese  of  Westminster,  4. 

Laughton,  Prof.  Knox,  explains  story  of  Nelson  and  Parker 
at  Copenhagen.     See  Nelson,  142. 

Lead  shot  cooled  by  falling  from  towers,  81. 

Left-handed  yarn,  a,  94 ;  Roman  family  name  Scsevola 
means   left-handed,   94. 

Leonidas,  the  pass  of  Thermopyte  defended  by,  92. 

"  L  itat !  c  est  moi.  Monsieur  !  "  no  historic  foundation  for 
saying.     See  Louis  XIV.,  190. 

Lewes,  George,  "  History  of  Philosophy,"  Dr.  Johnson's  ex- 
act woi'ds,  "  Let  us  take  a  walk  down  Cheapside,"  found 
in,  188. 

Liebig,  the  chemist,  weight  of  brain  of,  81. 

Locusts  are  good  to  eat,  52. 

London's  highest  ground,  165. 

Longsword,  Richard,  son  of  Henry  H.,  but  not  a  Cliflford, 
123. 

Lion  and  the  Mouse.     See  ..^sop's  Fables,  97. 

**  Lord  "  Bacon  a  misnomer,  8. 

Lotus,  the,  sacred  plant  of  the  Egyptians,  32. 

Louis  XIV.  and  the  State,  190. 

Louis  Philippe  no  changeling,  159 ;  absurd  stories  in  relation 
to,  159. 

Lucifer  not  Satan,  7 ;  not  called  so  by  Milton,  8. 

Macaulay  retold  the  legend  of  Porsena,  94 ;  told  the  story  of 

Horatius  and  the  bridge,  94. 
Macdonalds  of  Glencoe  not  massacred  by  Englishmen.     See 

Massacre  of  Glencoe,  143. 
MacEdairn,  leader  of  the  Picts,  115. 
"  Madcap  "  son    of   Henry  IV.  not  sent    to  prison  by  Sir 

William  Gascoigne,  132. 
Mad  dog  never  foams  at  the  mouth,  34. 


286  INDEX 

Maginn,  "William,  original  writer  of  exploits  of  Dick  Tur- 
pin.     See  Dick  Turpin,  168. 

Magna  Charta  sealed  in  1215,  127. 

Magnetic  mountains,  80. 

Marbles  not  made  of  marble,  210. 

**  Marino  Faliero,"  blunder  of  Byron  in,  171. 

Markham,  Clements  R.    See  Columbus's  Egg,  154. 

Marylebone  derived  from  Mary  le  bourne,  25. 

Mary,  Queen,  bed  of,  at  Holyrood,  a  fable,  148. 

Mary  Magdalene,  little  known  about,  102. 

Maspero,  Professor,  identifies  one  of  ^sop's  fables  with 
ancient  Egyptian  original,  97. 

Matioli,  Ercoli.     See  Story  of  Iron  Mask,  158. 

Maxwell,  Sir  Herbert,  on  the  fable  of  "  Bruce  and  the  spider," 
124. 

Meissen  ware,  10. 

Mephistopheles  a  devil,  but  not  the  Devil,  89 ;  the  fiendish 
character  in  Goethe's  "  Faust,"  89. 

Mercator,  Latin  for  Kremer,  180. 

Mice  and  Marmots,  37. 

Michelet  on  bathing  in  Europe.     See  Mediaeval  Dirt,  149. 

Milk  and  wine,  215. 

Milliner,  tbe,  and  the  million,  206. 

Milton  in  Error,  169. 

Minerva's  ^gis,  60. 

Misplacement  of  clauses,  263-267. 

Mispronounciations,  226-239. 

Misquotations  :  "  Now  is  the  winter  of  our  discontent,"  181 ; 
"  One  touch  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin,"  181 ; 
"  And  like  the  baseless  fabric,"  etc.,  182  ;  "  Si  monumentis 
quceris  circumspice,"  183 ;  *'  Water,  water,  everywhere, 
and  not  a  drop  to  drink,"  183;  "'Twas  ever  thus  from 
childhood's  hour,"  183;  "Irresponsible  indolent  re- 
viewers," 184;  "Fresh  fields  and  pastures  new,"  184; 
"The  human  form  divine,"  184;  "Spare  the  rod,  and 
spoil  the  child,"  184;  "  The  even   tenor  of  their  way," 


INDEX  287 

184 ;  **  The  end  justifies  the  means,"  184 ;  "  When  Greek 
meets  Greek,  then  comes  the  tug  of  war,"  185  ;  '*  Every 
mickle  makes  a  muckle,"  185  ;  "  Duty  toward  our  neigh- 
bor," 185;  "You  have  hit  the  nail  on  the  head,"  186; 
"The  knights  are  dust,"  etc.,  186. 

Mistaken  derivations,  204 ;  "  Philomel,"  204 ;  *'  honeymoon," 
204  ;  •'  unruly,"  204  ;  "  brown  study,"  204. 

Mistakes  about  animals,  34. 

Mistakes  about  mountains,  15 ;  Mount  Blanc  not  in  Switzer- 
land, 15 ;  Mount  St.  Elias  not  the  highest  peak  in  North 
America,  15 ;  Mount  Ararat  the  ancient  name  of  a  district 
in  eastern  Armenia,  15. 

Mistakes  about  plants,  27. 

IVlistakes  in  comparison,  260. 

Mistakes  in  connection  with  ancient  history,  90.  , 

Mistakes  in  English  history,  113. 

Mistakes  in  given  names,  —  "  9^"ii'^>"  "  Evelyn,"  196. 

Mistakes  in  plurals,  200-202. 

Mistakes  in  use  of  pronouns,  260-263. 

Mistakes  we  make  about  places,  14  et  seq. 

Mistakes  we  make  in  religious  history,  100. 

Modified  oaths,  218. 

Moguls  and  Romans,  149;  the  Mogul  Empire,  149;  the  name 
loosely  applied,  149. 

Monkey,  the,  and  the  stick,  38. 

Morea,  the  ancient  Peloponnesus,  20. 

Moscow  not  set  on  fire  by  the  Russians,  160. 

Moses  had  no  horn,  100. 

Moths  do  not  eat  holes  in  our  curtains  and  clothes,  52. 

Mountains,  magnetic,  80. 

Mouse  Tower,  the,  Southey's  poem  founded  on  misconcep- 
tion, 176. 

Mt.  Pilatus  not  named  after  Pilate,  25. 

Mugs,  coronation,  161. 

Muhammad  was  not  a  miracle  worker,  109, 


288  INDEX 

Mummy  wheat,  erroneous  stories  relating  to,  31. 
Miincliausen,  Baron,  story  of,  166. 

Names  of  people  and  places,  mistaken  dei-ivations,  etc. : 
"Mahomet,"  "  Bede,"  *•  Swithburn,"  "  Inigo  Jones," 
"Pepys,"  "Dahlia,"  " Tom,"  " Cicely,"  and  *' Alison," 
"  Valentine,"  223-225. 

Names  that  are  ./wr-fetched,  39. 

Napoleon  and  the  steamship  "  Fulton,"  70. 

Nautilus,  the,  does  not  sail,  54. 

Nelson  did  not  disobey  Parker  at  Copenhagen,  142. 

Nelson  River  not  named  after  the  naval  hero,  21. 

Nero  not  such  a  bad  fellow,  99;  did  not  put  his  mother 
Agrippina  to  death,  99 ;  did  not  play  and  sing  while  Rome 
was  burning,  99. 

New  Forest,  depopulation  of,  by  William  I.,  87. 

Newell,  Mr.,  inclined  to  trace  British  Christianity  to  a  Gal- 
ilean origin,  111. 

Nicholas,  Tsar,  was  an  Oldenburg,  144. 

Nightingale,  the,  sings  by  day  as  well  as  by  night,  49. 

Nightmares,  Captain  Burton,  Fuseli,  Shakespeare,  Scott, 
Lamb,  and  many  other  authors  deceived  in  regard  to 
derivations  of,  210,  211. 

"Nihilists  "  really  "  Radicals,"  6. 

Norsemen  and  Northmen  were  the  Norwegians,  85. 

No  woman  was  ever  pope,  105. 

Nuns  were  never  "  walled  up,"  106, 

"  Ode  to  Aphrodite,"  by  Sappho,  95." 

"  Old  Curiosity  Shop  "  in  Portsmouth  Street  not  immortal- 
ized by  Dickens,  176. 
Omission  of  articles,  268. 

One  who  muses  does  not  necessarily  cultivate  the  Muses,  209. 
Or  ever,  error  of  translators  of  Bible,  210. 
Ostriches  and  their  feathers,  50. 
Owl,  the,  perches  with  only  two  toes  visible,  49. 


INDEX  289 

Oxford  and  the  Bosporus,  19. 

Pagoda,  really  derived  from  Persian  but-khoda,  210. 

Palace,  name  of,  often  an  error,  3,  4. 

Palmer,  Mr.,  on  "  Pitfalls  of  Pedantry,"  200. 

Pan,  the  Greek  god,  a  purifier,  60. 

Papacy,  origin  of  the,  102. 

Papin,  Dionys,  excites  anger  of  Karl  of  Hesse,  70. 

Parr,  Old,  untrustworthy  inscription  on  gravestone  of,  178. 

Parsis  not  fire-worshippers,  107. 

Parsi,  the  name  only  another  form  of  Farsi,  or  Persian,  107. 

*' Passionate  Pilgrim,  the,"  part  of,  not  composed  by  Shake- 
speare, 193. 

Patrick,  Saint,  founds  church  in  Glastonbury,  112. 

Pea-jacket,  Captain  Marryat's  derivation  of,  210. 

Peeled,  but  not  skinned,  passage  in  Isaiah,  176. 

Pennyroyal  worth  more  than  a  penny,  206. 

Penthouse,  an  over-refined  word,  206. 

Pepys,  diary  of.     See  Grass-widows,  220,  221. 

Perignon,  cellarer  to  the  Abbey  of  Haute  Villiers.  See 
Champagne,  157. 

Perrault's  fairy  story  of  Cinderella,  87. 

Petronilla,  Maria  Stella.     See  Louis  Philippe,  159. 

Petronius  Arbiter  put  to  death  by  Nero,  99. 

"  Peveril  of  the  Peak,"  mistake  in,  regarding  Queen  Eliza- 
beth's birth.     See  Mistaken  Anniversaries,  144. 

Philip  II.  and  Elizabeth  of  Valois.     See  Don  Carlos,  156. 

Philopena  or  Philippine,  206. 

Piazza,  an  Italian  word  denoting  the  Spanish  plaza,  French 
place,  and  English  square,  89. 

Piccolomini,  Max,  no  myth,  156. 

Piccolomini,  Octavio.    See  Max  Piccolomini,  156. 

Pickaxes  have  no  pick,  206. 

Picts,  the,  were  not  painted,  114;  the  name  originally  a 
tribal  one,  114;  no  doubt  of  their  fighting  qualities,  114, 
115. 


290  INDEX 

Pierce,  Sir,  commonly  supposed  to  have  murdered  Richard 

II.,  131. 
Pile  the  same  word  as  peel,  206. 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  the,  not  Puritans,  138;  did  not  start  from 

Plymouth,  139. 
Pipe-coloring  not  modern,  61. 
"Pitfalls  of  pedantry,"  199-203. 
Pitt  (the  elder)  did  not  use  the  expression,  "  The  atrocious 

crime  of  being  a  young  man,"  192. 
Plantagenets,  the,  122. 
Plaj'fair,  Dr.  Lyon,  on  bathing  in  Europe.     See  Mediaeval 

Dirt,  149. 
Plump  children,  66. 
Plutarch's  allusion  to  Alexander,  91. 

Polar  bear  nicknamed  by  the  whalers  **  Old  Brownie,"  39. 
Pompey's  Pillar  erected  by  Publius,  2. 
Pope  Gregory  VII.  accused  of  burning  Sappho's  poems,  95. 
Pope  Johann  (or  Joan),  a  fable,  105. 
Pope  misled  Warburton,  169. 
Pope,  the,  infallibility  of,  104. 
Porsena,  legend  of,  retold  by  Macaulay,  94. 
Prester  John,  the  kingdom  of,  109. 
Prevost,  Abbe.     See  Cromwell,  169. 
Primary  colors,  71. 

Primroses  and  other  flowers,  different  colors  of,  32. 
Prince  of  Wales's  three  feathers.  129. 
Printing  press,  the,  introduction  of,  into  England,  154. 
Printing,  who  invented  the  art  of?  153. 
Prometheus  and  fire,  tbe  legend  of,  61. 
Proper  names  misapplied,  —  "  Will  o'  the  Wisp,"  225. 
Prophecy  mistaken,  in  relation  to  Byron,  171. 
Prussic  acid  and  almonds,  82. 
Pudding  should  have  no  g,  222. 
Pulque  skins,  sold  at  Mexican  railway  stations,  83. 
Purchas,  John,  "  Pilgrimages  of,"  109. 


INDEX  291 

Puritans  not  so  strict,  139. 

Puzzles  for  foreigners  in  pronunciation,  217. 

Queen  Bess's  pocket-pistol,  inscription  and  translation,  177, 

178. 
Quotations  wrongly  ascribed,  191. 

Rabbits  and  Rarebits,  208. 

Raspe,  E.  E.,  author  of  the  story  of  Baron  Mtinchausen.  See 
Baron  Munchausen,  165. 

Rattle-snakes,  concerning,  57. 

Rawlinson,  Prof.  George,  compares  Thothmes  with  Alexan- 
der, 90;  argues  against  the  story  of  Cleopatra  and  the 
asp,  98. 

Red  Sea,  Hebrew  Yam  Snph,  sea  of  bulrushes,  24. 

Reindeer,  the,  introduction  of,  into  the  Klondike,  222. 

Remarks  attributed  to  wrong  person,  191. 

Reservoir  of  1,001  columns  a  fraud,  3. 

Rice  paper  made  of  trimmings  of  linen,  28. 

Richard  Coeur  de  Leon  a  subject  of  legend,  125 ;  enters  on 
the  third  crusade,  125 ;  imprisoned  in  Austria,  125 ;  not 
discovered  by  Blondel  de  Nesle,  125,  126. 

Richai-d  XL,  Shakespeare's  story  of  his  death  unreliable,  131. 

Richard  III.  not  a  humpback,  136. 

Ridings  are  Thirdings,  222. 

Rizzio's  bloodstains,  belief  in,  a  result  of  superstition,  147. 

Rings,  ancient  Roman,  60,  7iote. 

Robinson  Crusoe,  real  story  of,  165. 

Roger  of  Hovendon  relates  story  of  flaying  of  French 
archer,  126. 

Romulus,  story  of,  a  myth,  95. 

Roof  of  the  world,  the,  15. 

Rose  not  a  flower,  94 ;  derivation  of  the  name,  94. 

Rosewood  trees  not  red  or  yellow,  but  almost  black,  30. 

Rostopchin,  Count,  alleged  incendiary  of  Moscow.  See  Mos- 
cow, 160. 


292 


INDEX 


Round-robins,  antiquity  of,  65. 

Rousseau  on  epicurism,  85. 

Rufus  not  shot  by  an  arrow,  121. 

Rump  Parliament  prescribed  size  of  paper  for  their  journals, 


"  Saint "  and  "  Holy  "   not  synonymous  terms,  104 ;  mosque 

of   Saint   Sophia   not  named  for   any   saint,    104;  Saint 

Sepulchre  Protestant  churches  in  Eno:land,  104;   Saint 

Croix  River  in  Wisconsin,  104 ;  Saint  Chapelle  at  Paris, 

104. 
Sairey  Gamp  a  myth.     See  Hannah  Glasse,  169. 
Sala,  G.  A.,  imagined  a  quotation  from  Boswell's  Johnson, 

188. 
Sanson,   C.  H.,  experiment  on  decapitating  machine.     See 

Guillotin,  161. 
Sappho  did  not  commit  suicide,  95 ;  her  nine  books  of  lyric 

poems  burnt  by  an  anti-Pag-an  fanatic,  95. 
Savonarola  not  the  precursor  of  Protestantism,  108. 
Saxons,  the,  did  not  land  when  the  Romans  left,  117. 
Scaevola  and  King  Porsena,  94. 
Scaliger  accuses  Pope   Gregory   VII.   of  burning   Sappho's 

lyric  poems,  95. 
Scheie  de  Vere  derives  term  "Freemason"    from   " Frere- 

Mason,"  a  brother  mason,  216. 
Schiller's    Wallenstein.      See    Max   Piccolomini,   156.     His 

famous  tragedy  of  Don  Carlos.     See  Don  Carlos,  156. 
Schmidt  makes  drawing  of  guillotine.     See  Guillotin,  161. 
Schoffer,  Peter.     See  Printing,  153. 
Scorpion,  why  it  stings  itself,  54. 
Scotus,  Marianus,  the  first  histoi'ian  to  mention  the  fable  of  a 

woman  pope,  105. 
Scottish  "  shires  "  are  misnomers,  18. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  on  massacre  of  Glencoe.     See  Massacre  of 

Glencoe,  143.     Mistakes  made  by,  167. 


INDEX  293 

Seals  are  not  flayed  alive,  41. 

Sealskin  that  is  not  sealskin,  40. 

Sea,  mistaken  notions  about  the,  68. 

Selkirk,  Alexander.     See  Robinson  Crusoe,  165. 

Seneca  a  usurer,  97. 

Shakespeare,  slips  of  132;  Bohemia  ("  Winter's  Tale"),  has 
no  seaboard,  164;  clocks  (**  Julius  Caesar")  not  known 
to  the  Romans,  164. 

Shakespeare  vs.  Barnfield,  193. 

Sheep  and  tar,  absurdity  of  the  proverb,  195. 

Shelley,  mistake  as  to  the  place  of  his  drowning,  177. 

Ship  of  the  desert,  the,  the  camel,  37. 

Shrewmouse  not  a  mouse  nor  akin  to  a  mouse,  38. 

Shrubs  that  do  not  grow,  223. 

Skeat  (Elymological  Dictionary)  defines  "wainscot,"  88, 
89. 

Sleepers  that  do  not  wake,  221. 

Sloth,  the,  not  slothful,  40. 

Slow-worms  and  glow-worms,  55. 

Small  fry,  43. 

Smith,  Adam,  originated  the  phrase,  "  A  nation  of  shop- 
keepers,"  195. 

Snakes  do  not  coil  round  a  tree,  56  ;  have  ears,  56. 

Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  traditionary  sites  of,  23. 

Sophia,  mosque,  not  called  for  any  saint,  104. 

Southey,  his  poem  of  Mouse  Tower  founded  on  misconcep- 
tion, 176. 

Sparrow  of  the  Bible,  the,  46. 

Spenser,  mistake  of,  in  "  Faerie  Queene,"  175. 

Sphinx,  the  Egyptian,  3. 

Split  infinitive,  the,  267. 

Standard  Dictionary  gives  derivation  of  word  **  Creole,"  88. 

Stars  do  not  "  fall "  or  *'  shoot,"  9. 

Steamboats,  opposition  to,  70. 

Steam  locomotion,  99. 


294  *  INDEX 

Steelyard,  an  odd  popular  misunderstanding,  223. 
Stephenson  not  the  first  to  construct  a  steam  railway,  69. 
Stevens,  John,  designed  the  first  engine  to  carry  passengers 

on  a  track  in  the  U.S.,  70. 
St.  Peter's  at  Rome  not  the  chief  church  of  that  city,  26. 
Strangford,  Lord,  on  the  Picts,  114. 
Street  of  the  Golden  Dragon,  derivation  of  name,  176. 
Sumner,  the  wrong,  171. 
Sunstroke  not  chargeable  to  the  sun,  9. 
Sylvio,  Joseph.     See  Max  Piccolomini,  156. 

Tacitus,  hatred  of,  for  Nero,  99. 

Tailors  and  hatters,  223. 

Talleyrand  and  Fouche,  187;  Talleyrand  did  not  invent  the 
expression,  "  It  is  the  beginning  of  the  end,"  "  lis  n'ont 
Hen  appris  ni  rien  oublie"  *'  Words  were  given  man  to 
disguise  his  thoughts,"  *'  It  is  worse  than  a  crime  ;  it  is  a 
blunder,"  187. 

Tarquin's  insult  to  Lucretia,  story  of,  a  legend,  94. 

Tell,  William,  did  not  exist,  150;  his  story  a  myth,  150-152; 
the  legend  common  to  many  peoples,  152. 

Tennyson,  "  Welcome  to  Alexandra,"  118. 

Terms  misapplied,  240-259. 

The  ark  that  was  not  Noah's,  211. 

The  bitter  end,  originally  a  nautical  term,  212. 

"The  dog  and  his  shadow,"  confusion  in  phrase,  196. 

"  The  Game  and  Playe  of  the  Chesse  "  not  the  first  book 
printed  in  England.     See  The  Printing  Press,  154. 

The  movement  of  sap,  29. 

The  Old  Nick,  confusion  in  regard  to  derivation,  209. 

The  peep  o'  day  is  the  pipe  o'  day,  205. 

Thermopylae,  the  battle  of,  92. 

Thimbles  not  invented  by  the  Dutch,  79. 

Thorns,  W.  T.,  exposes  frauds  of  Parr's  and  Jenkins's  age, 
178. 


INDEX  295 

Thothmes  the  third  not  to  be  compared  with  Alexaader,,90 ; 

his  conquests  narrated  by  Professor  Rawlinson,  90. 
TolstoY,  Count,  on  the  burning  of  Moscow.      See  Moscow, 

160. 
Tomb  of  Abel  derives  its  name  from  ancient  city  of  Abila,  3. 
Tornado,  description  of,  88. 
Traitor's  Gate,  the,  is  not  tlie  original,  135. 
TransUition,  errors  of,  173. 

Trevithick,  Richard,  father  of  the  locomotive,  69. 
Trivial  and  trifle  are  not  allied,  225. 
Troy,  the  story  of,  a  myth,  92. 
"  Tulips    and    Turbans,"    mistake    in    Spenser's    "  Faerie 

Queene,"  175. 
"Tun"  and  its  meaning,  87. 
Turkey,  the,  not  from  Turkey,  50. 
♦*  Twenty  Years  After,"  geographical  blunder  of  Dumas  in, 

172. 
Tyler,  Wat,  why  he  was  killed,  131. 
Tyrrel,  Walter,  did  not  shoot  William  Rufus,  121. 

*'  Union  Jack,"  origin  of  term,  87. 

*'Un  lapin  du  pays  de  Galles"  French  for  Welsh  rabbit,  208. 
Unruly  has  nothing  to  do  with  rules,  204. 
Unter  den  Linden,  in  Berlin,  18. 

"  Up  guards  and  at  them  "  never  uttered  by  Wellington  at 
Waterloo,  189. 

Various  mistakes  in  derivations,  212. 

Venetian  glass  not  made  in  Venice,  10. 

Venus  was  not  a  well-formed  woman,  61. 

Victoria,  Queen,  not  a  Guelph,  143 ;  her  names  and  descent, 

144  ;  mistake  in  regard  to  her  accession,  144. 
Vinegar's  mother,  207. 
Viking,  pronunciation  and  meaning  of,  85. 
VioUet-le-Duc  on  bath-rooms  in  twelfth  century.    See  Medi- 

seval  Dirt,  149. 


296  INDEX 

Wainscot,  Skeat's  definition  of,  87. 

Wallenstein,  Thekla.     See  Max  Piecolomini,  156. 

Warburton  misled  by  Pope,  169. 

Water,  filtered,  not  purified,  67. 

Waterloo,  Cambronue  at,  189. 

Water,  the  fieeziug  power  of,  71. 

Wear  your  furs  outside,  62. 

Welcome  is  not  a  well  come,  208. 

Westminster  Abbey  has  never  been  an  abbey,  4 ;  Ben  Jon- 
son's  name  misspelled  in,  189. 

Whales  do  not  spout  water,  42. 

Wharton,  N.  T.,  rejects  story  of  Pope  Gregory  and  Sappho's 
poems,  95. 

What  a  city  really  is,  25. 

"  Whiskey  and  Water."    See  Rabbits  and  Rarebits,  208. 

White  Tower,  the,  originally  Caesar's  Tower,  5. 

"  Within  a  windowed  niche  in  that  high  hall,"  etc.,  not  appro- 
priate.    See  Cambronne  at  Waterloo,  189,  190. 

Why  "  Cabby  "  is  a  "  Jehu,"  8. 

Why  the  cock  stands  on  steeples,  60. 

Why  the  scorpion  stings  itself,  54. 

Why  trees  split,  29. 

Wiclif  mistakes  Keltic  expression,  174. 

Wise  men  of  the  East,  101. 

"  Woful  Lamentation  of  Jane  Shore,"  a  ballad,  135. 

Woman  woe  to  man,  209. 

Words  falsely  attributed  to  Caesar,  98. 

Words  in  which  blunders  have  become  recognized  as  correct, 
200,  201. 

Words,  phrases,  and  things  that  are  misunderstood,  84. 

Words  that  have  been  so  long  misspelled  that  the  error  has 
become  fastened  to  the  language,  201,  202. 

Words  that  have  lost  or  gained  letters  by  reason  of  the  pro- 
pinquity of  an  article,  201. 

Words  that  some  great  men  never  spoke,  188. 


INDEX  297 

Workingmen  are  not  "  Proletarians,"  6. 
Wormwood  not  a  wood  for  worms,  33. 
Wrong  bones,  the,  167. 

Xerxes  attacks  the  Spartans  at  Thermopylae,  92. 

"Yellow  Jack,"  the  sailors'  personification  of  yellow  fever, 

87. 
Yellow-hammer.     See  Birds  with  Wrong  Names,  44,  45. 

Zebras,  are  they  untamable  ?  43. 
Zoroaster,  religion  of,  taken  to  India,  107. 


